It gives me great pleasure to
express, on behalf of the delegation of the United Arab
Emirates, our sincere congratulations to you, Sir, and
to your friendly country on your election as President
of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session.
We look forward to working closely with you as you
seek to successfully discharge your mission.
I would also like to express our appreciation to
your predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for
her remarkable achievements during her presidency at
the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, in
particular her efforts to stimulate more active debate
among cultures.
I also take this opportunity to express our
warmest greetings to His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
the Secretary-General, and to note our appreciation of
the initiatives he has taken to promote the role of the
United Nations since assuming his post.
Our world still suffers from a wide range of
regional and international issues, conflicts and threats,
most visible among which are the worldwide spread of
poverty and epidemics, the degradation of the
environment, terrorism, organized crime, the spread of
extremism and violations of human rights, and attempts
to obtain nuclear weapons. This should prompt us to
make sincere and determined efforts to implement the
recommendations, decisions and plans of action
approved by the world’s leaders and by the United
Nations.
Given its interest in and commitment to the
principle of good-neighbourly relations, as well as its
respect for the national sovereignty of other States, the
United Arab Emirates would like to draw attention to
the fact that, thus far, no progress whatsoever has been
made on the issue of the Iranian occupation since 1971
of three islands belonging to the United Arab Emirates:
the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa. This
is despite the consistent efforts expended and the
positive peaceful initiatives taken by my country,
which wants this issue settled by peaceful means,
either through bilateral and unconditioned negotiations
or by referral of the issue to the International Court of
Justice for legal arbitration.
Severe conflict has sorely wounded our region,
and quick and effective treatment is required. As for
Iraq, we express our firm belief that all should abstain
from interference in Iraq’s internal affairs and should
show respect for the national sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Iraq. This requires that all parties should
cooperate to bring to an end the cycle of violence and
the inflaming of passions, and it calls for partition and
division. Let us give our support to an Iraqi
Government that truly works to achieve national
reconciliation. The United Arab Emirates renews its
encouragement for the efforts made to promote
reconstruction in Iraq.
Regarding the Middle East crisis, we call on the
United Nations, and the Security Council in particular,
to play a more active role, together with the Middle
East Quartet, to give new momentum to the Middle
East peace process. We stress that no solution to the
Arab-Israeli conflict is possible without Israel’s
acceptance of the Arab Peace Initiative, which is based
on the relevant United Nations resolutions and offers a
balanced and comprehensive solution to this long-
standing conflict.
In this context, we are following with interest the
efforts to convene the international peace conference
for the Middle East later this year with the
participation of all concerned parties. We look forward
to a balanced and fair settlement of the issue on the
basis of the Arab Peace Initiative, the United Nations
Security Council resolutions, and the rules of
international legitimacy. We also renew our support for
Syria’s right to regain its full sovereignty over the
occupied Golan Heights.
We note with satisfaction the United Nations role
in restoring security and stability in Lebanon, thanks to
the pressure put on Israel to fulfil its legal obligations
under Security Council resolution 1701 (2006),
including respect for Lebanon’s sovereignty,
withdrawal from the Shaba’a farmlands and the village
of al-Ghajar and the handing over of detailed maps and
coordinates of the landmines that Israel planted in
southern Lebanon.
We reaffirm our support for the reconstruction
efforts and for the stability and territorial integrity of
Lebanon as well as for the maintenance of its
constitutional institutions. In this respect, the United
Arab Emirates has undertaken a number of
reconstruction projects in Lebanon and has provided
humanitarian assistance. The United Arab Emirates
collaborates closely with the Lebanese Government
and the United Nations to remove mines and
unexploded ordnance, this work having originally
commenced as part of an initiative taken by the United
Arab Emirates in 2001, when my Government provided
initial funding of $50 million.
We hope that talks between Iran and the
International Atomic Energy Agency will eventually
lead to a permanent, peaceful solution that will spare
the region further tensions and conflicts and will help
to reassure countries in the region that they will not be
faced with any threats to their security. We stress again
that Israel should not be excluded from the terms of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The United Arab Emirates continues to cooperate
fully with all efforts to combat all forms of terrorism,
including associated money-laundering. We also
emphasize the importance of promoting dialogue
among cultures and civilizations and of enhancing
tolerance among religions.
The United Arab Emirates contributes generously
to the financing of development projects in some
95 States. Such assistance has exceeded $70 billion and
is intended to promote a culture of peace and stability
in those countries and throughout the world. Consistent
with that approach, the United Arab Emirates has
created a number of institutions, including the Abu
Dhabi Fund for Development, the Zayed Charitable
and Humanitarian Foundation, the Khalifa bin Zayed
Foundation for Charitable Work and the Mohammed
bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charity, which recently
launched the “Dubai Cares” charity campaign, which
seeks to guarantee education for 1 million children
around the world, especially in Asia and Africa.
Since its creation in 1971, the United Arab
Emirates has achieved economic, social and cultural
progress that has helped to establish stability and well-
being for citizens of the Emirates and job opportunities
for the millions who work in our country.
We have also launched an interim political reform
plan, in whose first phase half of the members of the
Federal National Council were elected as an important
step towards political participation. In this context, I
should also like to make reference to the significant
national gains that have been made by women in the
United Arab Emirates. Two women sit in the Council
of Ministers, and women hold approximately a quarter
of the seats in the Federal National Council. They are
also represented in the judiciary and in other senior
leadership and decision-making positions.
In the context of its national, regional and
international efforts and cooperation, the United Arab
Emirates has enacted laws to counter terrorist crimes
and money-laundering and has frozen many suspect
bank and corporate accounts. It has also enacted laws
on issues such as human trafficking and international
judicial cooperation on criminal matters, and has
adopted import and export control procedures for a
range of commodities.
In its desire for educational and cultural contact
with the rest of the world, the United Arab Emirates
has launched a number of initiatives, including the
$2-million Sheikh Zayed Book Award, designed to
motivate creative writers and intellectuals to make
contributions in all spheres of the humanities.
As part of our efforts to bring the experience of
the world’s most prestigious universities to the United
Arab Emirates, we have recently launched the Paris-
Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi and have inaugurated
the Emirates Foundation to raise our educational,
technological, intellectual and research resources to the
highest global levels. Further underlining our belief in
the importance of cultural communication among the
world’s peoples for the preservation of the historical
heritage of human civilization, we have agreed to build
two world-class satellite museums in the United Arab
Emirates: the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Guggenheim
Abu Dhabi.
The United Arab Emirates prides itself on being
home for people of all religions, ethnicities, cultures
and countries from all continents. Indeed, the number
of countries represented in the Emirates exceeds the
total membership of the United Nations. All these
people live in the Emirates in harmony, forming a
model for what the modern world should be like.
In compliance with its obligations under
international human rights and labour treaties, the
United Arab Emirates has enacted legislation to
guarantee the full rights of its expatriate workforce in
accordance with relevant national and international
laws and treaties. I affirm here that the relevant
authorities in the United Arab Emirates are determined
that these laws and treaties should be fully
implemented so as to protect workers and provide them
with the best working and living conditions.
Finally, we hope that our deliberations on the
urgent international issues on the agenda of the current
sixty-second session of the General Assembly will
continue in a spirit of solidarity and will lead to
positive steps towards the eventual fulfilment of our
aspiration to peace, development and prosperity for our
world and its peoples.