Allow
me, at the outset to extend sincere my congratulations
to Ambassador John Ashe, President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. We are confident
that he will ably guide the work of the Assembly during
this session. I also extend my thanks and gratitude
to Mr. Vuk Jeremi., President of the Assembly at
the previous session, for his efforts. We wish to
thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his wise
leadership of the Organization and for his interest in
the developments taking place in the world and in my
country.
It is a felicitous coincidence that the sixty-eighth
session of the General Assembly coincides with the
celebrations in my country in honour of the September
and October revolutions. Allow me, from this important
international rostrum, to congratulate the great and
valiant people of Yemen on this important occasion
and to commend the country and people of Yemen for
their resilience and their sacrifices in emancipating
themselves from the yoke of colonization, injustice,
oppression and despotism.
I also wish to congratulate the people of Yemen for
wisely and patiently forging ahead on the path of change
and modernization for more than 50 years and for their
determination to rid themselves of all the remnants
of the past. I commend them on their stewardship of
the historic political change, chief among them the
implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
initiative, with the support of international and regional
communities. From this rostrum, I wish to commend
my country’s youth for its leadership throughout the
transition process in building institutions, enhancing
and promoting freedom and democracy, and building a
new Yemen where justice, liberty and good governance
prevail.
The values of justice, freedom and equality, respect
for human rights and the maintenance of international
peace and security are the main pillars and principles
on which the United Nations was established. Because
of our firm belief in those values and principles, we
have always sought to implement and promote United
Nations instruments and to support peaceful coexistence
among nations. Perhaps the lofty and noble purposes
and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United
Nations and all its instruments served as inspiration in
the political settlement and the comprehensive national
dialogue that we have been pursuing for more than six
months.
Those purposes and principles are also reflected in
two aspects of the current situation. First is our desire
for coexistence and consensus, our rejection of violence
and our preference for the language of dialogue and
logic and reason. The second aspect is the fact that
Yemen is considered a unique model that should be
followed, given the tremendous change being witnessed
in our region. The acute crisis that befell Yemen in 2011
reflected internal understanding and tolerance and a
desire for coordination with regional and international
partners.
In that context, we wish to reiterate our thanks
and appreciation to all those who stood by the people
of Yemen and by the political settlement embodied in
the Gulf initiative, chief among them the Custodian of
the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz
Al-Saud; the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council
and the GCC Secretary General, Mr. Abdul Latif bin
Rashid Al Zayani. I also extend my thanks to Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon and to Security Council members
for visiting Yemen on two occasions.
As my country is a unique model among the
countries in which the Arab Spring is unfolding, those
visits have enhanced the new approach, which is based
on the GCC initiative and Security Council resolutions
on Yemen. We thank the five permanent members of the
Security Council for their unified vision with regard to
Yemen, which made it possible for us to forge ahead
with the political process and crown it with success.
We also extend our appreciation to the League of
Arab States, the European Union, Germany and all the
relevant international organizations and institutions, as
well as to the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General
on Yemen, Mr. Jamal Benomar, for his efforts to achieve
reconciliation between the parties in Yemen.
As the Assembly is aware, my country has made
great strides in the implementation of the GCC initiative
and its mechanisms. We are now turning to the second
phase, that of concluding the work of the comprehensive
National Dialogue and forging ahead with our plan to
shape our future. The results of this endeavour will lay
the foundations for the establishment of a new, modern
Yemen where democracy, the peaceful transfer of
power, the promotion of freedom, justice, partnership,
equality and equal opportunities for all citizens prevail.
Those foundations will enhance the authority of the
State, the rule of law, security, stability and the unity
of Yemen.
We are also forging ahead with strengthening
security and stability in our country and restructuring
the military and security institutions, so as to bolster
their main national task — to be loyal to the State
rather than to parties or individuals. We are certain that
our brethren and our friends will assist us in our new
endeavour, namely, the drafting of the new constitution
and the holding of a referendum on it, as well as in our
preparations for the next presidential and parliamentary
elections.
The achievements being made and that will be
made, in the ongoing political process depend heavily
on the support of the international community and on
enhanced partnership and cooperation between the
international community and Yemen, especially as
there are internal and external parties that continue
to attack the will of the Yemeni people. Those parties
are making every effort to obstruct the achievement
of political settlements and to target all the factors of
stability and the foundations of development in my
country. Such acts require the appropriate international
measures so as to deter and punish all those who are
trying to defeat this unique model in the region.
There are a multitude of factors at play, particularly
the increasing unemployment rate, growing levels
of poverty, and poor social services in general. All
those factors exacerbate instability and create a fertile
environment for the actions of extremist groups such
as Al-Qaida. However, eliminating them effectively
requires all kinds of logistical, financial and technical
support through practical programmes and plans that
do address not only the symptoms, but also the root
causes of those phenomena.
We need the international community’s support
in implementing our national counter-terrorism
strategy. That is why the fulfilment of pledges by donor
countries and the Friends of Yemen must be accelerated,
particularly since the Government of Yemen has been
working in partnership with donors to earmark and
allocate all those funds to various development areas.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all our
donors, especially those who have already made good
on their pledges and financial commitments to Yemen.
That is particularly important in view of the fact
that Yemen, owing to its geographic location, social
composition and economic status, has been plagued
by various problems and challenges. They include the
activities of Al-Qaida and of cross-border organized
crime and national and international criminal groups
trafficking in drugs, weapons and people, as well as
the piracy off Yemen’s coasts. Addressing all those
problems requires international cooperation for the
security of the country and the region as a whole.
We would also like to bring up the issue of refugees
in Yemen, especially from the Horn of Africa. We
have been hosting more one million of them, with
all the economic, social and security difficulties that
such a situation entails. We are therefore calling on the
international community and relevant organizations to
help us to deal with the issue and mitigate its negative
impact on Yemen. We must find new ways and means
to help the Government care for the refugees and help
them to return to their homes, especially since those
countries have lately seen their stability restored to
some degree.
Conflicts and bloody events, especially in the
Middle East, are contrary to the lofty goals of the United
Nations, which is why the international community
must revisit the structure and working methods of the
Organization and make the reforms necessary to enable
it to effectively discharge its responsibilities for the
maintenance of international peace and security and
to revitalize its role. In that regard, we should mention
the despair and frustration of many Arab and Muslim
nations over the failure to end the Israeli occupation
of Palestine, arrive at a just solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict and put a stop to all the occupying
Power’s oppressive measures and practices and attempts
to Judaize the holy city of Jerusalem, expand settlement
activities, detain Palestinian citizens and excavate
illegally around the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
We also wish to denounce the use of chemical
weapons, especially in Syria, by any party. We
call on all the parties in the Syrian conflict to stop
the bloodshed, agree to a dialogue and to work
towards a political settlement and reconciliation
and reconstruction. We call on the international and
regional parties concerned to intensify their efforts to
achieve a peaceful settlement of the crisis. A “Geneva
II” conference should be convened as soon as possible
in order to put an end to the violence, killings and
bloodshed in Syria. Recent events have demonstrated
the challenges facing the United Nations in this area,
particularly regarding the disagreement between
permanent members of the Security Council, which was
a pretext for certain groups to opt for unilateral action
outside the international legitimacy represented by the
United Nations. The Council needs thorough reform for
it to be able to carry out its primary task, which is the
maintenance of international peace and security and
the peaceful settlement of conflicts.
Concerning the brotherly country of Somalia
and our support for it, we call on the international
community to continue to stand by it in order to enable
it to overcome its long legacy of conflict and suffering.
Finally, I would like to thank the President and the
Secretary-General once again.