It is my pleasure to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. Your election is a testament to the greatness of our African continent. I am pleased to address the Assembly and share the views of my country, Libya, on a number of serious and sensitive issues that we deem important for joint international action and increased universal cooperation. Last year, we relinquished our right to speak to the President of the African Union in the expectation that he would speak for the entire Union. It seems, however, that the African Union has no post of Foreign Minister and that the Ministers of member States were therefore compelled to speak instead. Thus, I am obliged to speak now. All States obviously agree that the current structure and the rules of procedure of the United 14 Nations are flawed, and all States agree on the need for reform. Indeed, before we can discuss reform in the Middle East, the former republics of the Soviet Union or any other area of the world, we must first reform the United Nations. Before we speak about lack of democracy in the world, we must first recognize the lack of democracy in the United Nations. Furthermore, because the General Assembly is the parliament of parliaments and the Security Council is the government of governments, we have no right to talk about democracy and reform in the world unless we first reform the structure of the United Nations. The past 59 years have demonstrated that the General Assembly is merely a decorative body without a soul and that the authority lies with the Security Council, which controls all the work of the United Nations. It is the one and only authority. My country therefore proposes that the upcoming sixtieth session of the General Assembly should be decisive and important, and that invitations should be extended to all world leaders to participate. We should announce that decisions on radical reform for the United Nations will be taken at the sixtieth session. God willing, President Muammar Al-Qadhafi, in what will be his first visit to the General Assembly, will attend that session, which will be a historic milestone involving a confrontation with the grave and unjust situation currently prevailing at the United Nations. We propose that the sixtieth session be held in Geneva — the geographical centre of the world — to facilitate the attendance of all world leaders and presidents, even if additional funds have to be allocated in order to convene the meeting in Geneva. My country is ready to contribute financial support for that endeavour. There are two options before us. Our first option is to transfer the authority to invoke Chapters VI and VII of the Charter from the Security Council to the General Assembly. If that cannot be done, we have no choice but to declare the General Assembly null and void and to stop pouring money into this moribund body. Our second option is to increase the membership of the Security Council by allocating seats to new entities such as the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Latin America. In addition, the right of veto will have to be reviewed and made subject to new rules at the same time as the membership of the Security Council is expanded. We warn that, unless these reforms are implemented, the United Nations will cease to exist, as unilateral actions are taking place outside the confines of the United Nations. The African Union must have a permanent seat on the Security Council. That seat will be held by the Union’s members in rotation. As the sixtieth session of the General Assembly approaches, Libya is presenting a unique, bold and strong initiative to eliminate its programmes of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and chemical weapons, and hand over related equipment to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Libya played the central role in the establishment of the African Union and contributed effectively to the liberation of colonized and oppressed peoples. Libya, with its 2,000-kilometre coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, is at the centre of the world and is both a place of conflict and a haven for tourism. The Mediterranean Sea without Libya is inconceivable, as is the south Mediterranean coast without Libya. Libya gave birth to the third universal theory — the middle ground between capitalism and communism — and presented the world with the Green Book, which resolves the political, economic and social problems of society in its three sections. Accordingly, Libya deserves to have a permanent seat on the Security Council. Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi presented a proposal to world leaders, which they all approved. The proposal calls for the establishment of a committee of wise men, consisting of President Nelson Mandela, President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Bill Clinton, that would serve as an authority for resolving the conflicts of our world. The United Nations should adopt a resolution supporting that proposal. We must all continue to combat terrorism. If we want to eliminate terrorism, we must first eliminate its causes and not simply pursue its isolated operations. We must attack its root causes. If we want oil supplies and prices to remain stable, we must prevent wars and potential conflicts from occurring near oil fields. 15 Finally, Colonel Al-Qadhafi will soon address the issue of United Nations reform on his web site: www. alqadhafi.org.