I would like to congratulate Mr. Srgjan
Kerim on his election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its sixty-second session and to wish him
every success in his important task. Allow me also to
salute his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed
Al-Khalifa of sisterly Bahrain and to express our
appreciation of the efforts she deployed to bring the
work of that session to a successful conclusion.
I also wish to express to the new Secretary-
General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, our best wishes for success
in his noble mission, namely, that of guiding our
international Organization towards the realization of
the purposes and principles of its Charter.
The Middle East region has been an arena of
daunting challenges and heightened tensions owing to
the Israeli occupation, since 1967, of Arab territories
and to the denial of the legitimate national rights of the
Palestinian people. Although this is not a new
development, recent challenges and tensions have been
escalating and, as such, they not only threaten security
and stability throughout the region, but also
international peace and security. The hopes of the
peoples of the region of achieving a just and
comprehensive peace and living in a secure and stable
environment have faded, if they have not totally died.
Moreover, the current situation in Iraq and the
attendant anger and apprehensions it has generated
have turned the region into an explosive hotbed of
tensions and a theatre of confrontations, instead of
allowing it to prosper, pursue its development goals
and achieve progress.
May I, therefore, ask what have we accomplished
over the past year or during the previous session of the
General Assembly in terms of addressing the root
causes of tensions plaguing the Middle East region?
That situation does not serve the interests of any of the
parties, inside or outside the region. The prevailing
trends have not changed: Israeli occupation of Arab
lands continues, so does the denial of the legitimate
rights of Palestinians. One can even say that the
support, financing and arming of those policies have
continued unabated and have even surpassed previous
records. The recently reported figures on the increased
United States arming of Israel speak for themselves.
The latest act of aggression against Syria on
6 September 2007 is proof of Israel’s desire to escalate
tensions. We reiterate that the failure of the
international community, including the Security
Council, to condemn that act of aggression will
encourage Israel to persist in that hostile pursuit, and
will lead to the exacerbation of tensions in the region.
Some sources in the United States have spread rumours
and fabricated news in order to justify that act of
aggression. By distorting the facts they have become
Israel’s accomplices in that act.
Addressing and pursuing peace in the Middle
East require first and foremost evincing the will to
make peace on the basis of law and justice.
Regrettably, that will does not factor into the priorities
of some of the policies pursued nowadays. The
contemplated substance, approach and objectives of an
international gathering that seeks to find a
comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict
remain vague. Furthermore, the proposed gathering
fails to identify the purpose, basis, terms of reference
and time frame of the process.
Syria has repeatedly stressed and stresses again
today that peace is its strategic choice. President
Bashar Al-Assad highlighted that fact in the statement
he made before the People’s Assembly on 17 July
2007. He stated that Syria is ready for a just and
comprehensive peace built on resolutions of
international legitimacy, which he deemed to be the
prelude to the realization of peace and security in the
region. The statement confirms that Syria has the will
to make a genuine peace that would recover the rights
and return the land to its rightful owners and that
would guarantee peace for all. We have repeatedly
called for a resumption of the peace process on the
basis of the Madrid terms of reference and the principle
of land for peace. Let me ask here: does the Israeli
Government or the current American administration
still have that will, the will to make genuine peace?
Regrettably, actions and realities on the ground suggest
otherwise.
The current situation in Iraq presages great
dangers for Iraq and the region. Addressing that
situation requires effective cooperation among all
parties inside Iraq, in the region and the world at large.
The absence of a genuine political vision for a solution
and the exclusive reliance on a military solution further
aggravate the situation. We have always stressed the
need to preserve the unity of the Iraqi people and the
Iraqi land, the non-interference in its internal affairs,
the preservation of its sovereignty and independence,
its Arab and Islamic identity and the rejection of any
claims to divide it. We believe that the solution in Iraq
must begin with national reconciliation based on the
principle of respect for the will of all segments of the
Iraqi people to determine their political future or to lay
the foundation for a new Iraq that is built on equal
citizenship. We therefore stress the need for the
withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq, in
agreement with the Iraqi Government, because that
measure will contribute to curbing the violence. We
have repeatedly stressed our condemnation of all
terrorist acts committed in Iraq that claim the lives of
innocent civilians. Occasional allegations that
combatants are infiltrating into Iraq through the
Syrian-Iraqi border cannot be farther from the truth.
They fail to acknowledge the strict measures that Syria
has put in place to control those borders. We believe
that the purpose of those unfounded accusations is to
assign to others the responsibility for the failure of the
occupying Power to achieve security and stability in
Iraq.
The deteriorating security situation in Iraq has
prompted many Iraqis to flee their country. There are
over 1.6 million Iraqi refugees in Syria today. In
addition to the security and social repercussions
associated with their presence, Syria is bearing an
enormous financial burden to satisfy their economic
needs and to provide them with services. It is
regrettable that the international community has failed
to discharge its responsibility to assist Iraqi refugees
until it becomes safe for them to return to their homes
and country. The occupying Power spends hundreds of
billions of dollars on military operations inside Iraq,
but fails to allocate any resources to assist Iraqis who
have been forced out of Iraq as a result of the
occupation and its repercussions.
Official visits exchanged between fraternal Iraq
and Syria have opened broad horizons for mutual
cooperation and have identified the main areas of
cooperation at all levels. Syria, for its part, plans to
implement all the measures agreed to during those
visits.
The critical and sensitive situation in brotherly
Lebanon requires that the Lebanese act together in
order to emerge from the current state of affairs and
arrive at solutions that will serve the interest of
Lebanon and its future. Syria has consistently
supported all initiatives aimed at activating Lebanese
dialogue within the country with a view to arriving at a
consensus. We believe that the run-up to the coming
presidential elections constitutes a good basis for
consensus-building among the Lebanese to elect a
president in accordance with constitutional rules, free
from foreign intervention and in a manner that would
safeguard Lebanon’s interests and its relations with
Arab countries.
Syria reaffirms its position calling for the
elimination of all weapons of mass destruction from
the Middle East region. Allow me to recall that in 2003
Syria tabled a draft resolution before the Security
Council on behalf of the Arab Group, and we are still
looking forward to its adoption.
I would like to affirm that Syria associates itself
with the declared positions of other developing
countries, which stress the freedom and the right of all
countries to acquire nuclear technologies to use them
for peaceful purposes. We believe that it is necessary to
compel Israel, the sole party in the region that
possesses nuclear weapons, to submit its facilities to
the safeguards regime of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) and to adhere to the Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive
Safeguards Agreement.
Like many others, I wonder whether the world
has become safer many years after the beginning of the
war on terrorism. The answer is common knowledge.
Terrorism has spread to areas that have never known
that phenomenon before. Syria believes that fighting
terrorism by force alone is useless. We must address
the root causes of terrorism and firmly distinguish
between combating terrorism and the legitimate right
of people to resist foreign occupation. We call on all
States to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. At the
same time, we warn against using terrorism as a pretext
to compromise peoples’ rights and to instil hatred
among religions and civilizations instead of promoting
intercultural and interreligious dialogues in the interest
of humanity at large.
Earlier on in the debate we listened to calls
advocating interference in the internal affairs of States
under the pretext of defending human rights and
promoting democracy. Syria questions the discrepancy
between words and actions in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon
and other parts of the world. The inhumane practices
we learned of in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the
condoning of Israeli aggression against Lebanon last
year and other Israeli practices in Palestine and the
Golan constitute grave violations of human rights. That
prompts us to question in turn, and rightly so: which
human rights are they advocating?
More than ever before our world needs a
reaffirmation of our commitment to the principles and
purposes of the United Nations, in order to avoid
applying double standards and to free the Organization
from those few who try to control its decisions and
dictate their policies to its organs. The conflicts and
crises with which our world is plagued today must
prompt us to seek solutions based on enhanced
intercultural and interreligious dialogues, and to
persevere in our pursuit of the political solutions to
current international problems in a manner that would
preserve international peace and security.