Bahrain

Mr. President, at the outset, I have the pleasure to extend my most sincere congratulations and best wishes to you and your friendly country of Gabon on the occasion of your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and to wish you every success in your work. May I take this opportunity to thank your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Julian Hunte, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the friendly country of Saint Lucia, for the intensive efforts he exerted during his presidency of the last session. I also would like to take this opportunity to express my country’s appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the great efforts he has made to enhance and strengthen the role of the United Nations in maintaining international peace and security. Since the signing of the Charter in 1945 in San Francisco, the United Nations has played a vital role in addressing many international political, economic, social and humanitarian issues. Our world today is witnessing the interlinking of different issues in politics and in regional and international security with other issues of development, the environment, culture, women and human rights. As a result, international interests have become interwoven and the distinction between local and international questions has almost vanished in light of the spread of globalization. People need the United Nations now more than they did a half a century ago. With newly developed understanding, they have a greater day-to-day need to keep up with the modern developments of the twenty-first century and the spirit of the age, led by multilateral diplomacy, which looks at both present and inherited problems from a new practical perspective and understanding. The idea of reforming the United Nations, including the collective security system, is indeed an ambitious one. However, we believe that its implementation is not an impossible dream but a necessity. The international community must respond, through innovative thinking, practical methods and a collective determination, in order to achieve democracy in international relations, maintain the spirit of the Charter, and devise practical solutions to national and regional conflicts and mitigate their consequences for the development process in Member States. In that context, we would like to reiterate our support for the efforts made by the Secretary-General to reform the Organization and enhance its capacity to shoulder its responsibilities and carry out it missions. We look forward with great interest to the report that the Secretary-General will present in December on the outcome of the meetings of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. We hope that these results and recommendations will not only meet the hopes of the peoples of the world but will also be sufficient to address the threats and problems that beset international relations on all sides. As reform and modernization of the United Nations have become a goal for the majority of its Members, by the same token, leaders and political experts in many parts of the world, including the Arab world, have become aware that reform and modernization are important issues in their societies in order to address the demands for change and the movement of history, and that these issues must be addressed with clear-sightedness and wisdom, to meet 25 the hopes and aspirations of the new generation for progress and democratization. As a result of that historic political awareness, the reform and democratization process has made great strides in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Bahrain has moved rapidly in the building of democracy and the widening of popular participation since the adoption of the National Action Charter by the people of Bahrain on 14 February 2001, and municipal and parliamentary elections in 2002. It is clear that the call for reform and democratization, which has become an important contemporary element in international policy, has become a demand of both industrialized countries and of many developing countries as well. This year, the President of the Group of Eight invited His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, the King of Bahrain, to participate in its annual Summit held in Georgia, United States, from 8 to 10 June last, in recognition of His Majesty’s important role in the reform process and the building of democracy in Bahrain. The phenomenon of terrorism is a source of concern for the international community, because of its horrific spread to many different parts of the world. Indeed, no region or country is immune. In that regard, Bahrain reaffirms its condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, regardless of its sources or motivation. We reassert that there can be no justification whatsoever for terrorism, and that terrorist acts are not condoned by any religion or belief. Bahrain has condemned, and continues to condemn, terrorist acts against countries and peoples through which innocent lives are lost, and reaffirms its solidarity with the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its support for all measures it has taken to overcome these criminal actions, which contradict the principles and tenets of Islam, a religion of tolerance and mercy. Bahrain also condemns and denounces all terrorist acts around the world, including the events at the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in Russia. In examining terrorism and its threats, it is necessary to review its causes in order to limit its destructive danger. Among those causes, we find poverty, ignorance, backwardness, unemployment, a culture of extremism, fundamentalism, ethnic prejudice, feelings of national desperation and frustration, and violations of human rights. To address this terrorist phenomenon, and within the framework of regional and international cooperation to fight it, Bahrain and the other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) this year signed the GCC Anti-Terrorism Agreement, a further step in overcoming this scourge, which must be eradicated. Israel is increasing its oppressive measures and practices in the occupied territories against the Palestinian people. It does not respect or comply with international law and international legality by taking areas of Palestinian land in its construction of the so- called barrier, which consolidates the occupation and the settlements, and extinguishes hopes for an independent Palestinian State — the legal and inalienable right of the Palestinian people. The international community today must take a courageous stand in the face of these actions, in particular following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice delivered on 9 July 2004, and General Assembly resolution ES-10/15 of 20 July 2004, which represent a triumph for international legality and a clear condemnation of the building of the separation wall, which contradicts the principles of international law. The international community must use that opinion to pressure Israel to end its occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shaba’a Farms. The Arab countries reaffirm their commitment to the Arab peace initiative agreed at the Beirut Summit in 2002, and reaffirmed by the most recent Arab Summit in Tunis in 2004, which calls for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the resolutions of international legality, in particular Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and 1515 (2003). We call once again on the Quartet to resume its efforts to promote the peace process, and we demand that the Government of Israel fulfil its obligations under the peace plan, as set out in the road map. The situation in brotherly Iraq remains a continued source of concern for the countries and peoples of the region, in particular the violence and insecurity that threaten it, despite continued efforts to maintain peace, especially following the establishment of the Interim Government, which took office on 28 June 2004, and in spite of the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqi 26 authorities, the convening of the national conference and steps taken towards the creation of an interim National Legislative Council. The upcoming stage requires that a vital and effective role be played by the international community, represented by the United Nations, which will bear the heavy burden of supporting the interim Iraqi Government and helping it to fulfil the tasks required of it under Security Council resolution 1546 (2004). Bahrain has on more than one occasion expressed its support for efforts to maintain peace and security in Iraq, and to create the conditions for the reconstruction of the country and the maintenance of its unity. It also reaffirmed its willingness to participate in Arab and international efforts to rebuild Iraq and to maintain its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The security and stability of the Arab Gulf region is a matter of great concern to the Government of Bahrain, which is constantly seeking peace and stability in a region that has suffered greatly during the past three decades. The Kingdom of Bahrain, which is a member of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council, calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to work to peacefully resolve the issue of the islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, which belong to the United Arab Emirates, either through serious bilateral negotiations aimed at an agreement between the two neighbouring countries or by arbitration. Given the Kingdom of Bahrain’s follow-up of efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation and to re- establish stability in important regions of the Arab world, we welcomed the Naivasha Agreement between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. We are anxious to see an end to the civil war there, which has taken a great toll in terms of human life and material resources. Bahrain also welcomed the agreement between the Sudan and the United Nations aimed at ending the bloodshed in the Darfur region, as well as the steps taken by the Sudanese Government to implement its obligations in accordance with the agreement that it signed with the Secretary-General on 3 July. Bahrain also expresses its support for the efforts of the African Union, which is working with the Sudanese Government with a view to resolving the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. We affirm the importance of respecting the Sudan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. We call on the Security Council to give the Government of the Sudan sufficient time to deal with the crisis and offer the necessary financial assistance to bring it to an end. Mr. Khan (Bangladesh), Vice-President, took the Chair. Today more than ever we are committed to the principles and purposes of the Charter. We now have a deeper understanding of the need for a modernized and more advanced Organization that is capable of taking part in collective international action, of responding to the changes and challenges of the twenty-first century and of ensuring greater democracy in international relations, equal rights among the peoples of the world and equal sovereignty among States. It must also be able to arrive at solutions for problems that may occur in the future on the basis of international partnership, so that any as yet unforeseen challenges facing humanity in the coming decades can be dealt with. Past mistakes and current failures should not divert us from our ambitions for a better future — a future free from the scourge of war, a future of peace and justice, where human rights and the dignity of the individual are respected; a future where resources are developed and where society can progress, where greed has been eliminated and where countries cooperate within an advanced international order that promotes the rule of law and disseminates the values of human rights, generosity and justice, without prejudice, arrogance or discrimination.