Allow me to congratulate Mr. Nassir
Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his election to the presidency
of the General Assembly at this session. I wish him
every success in his efforts to promote the interests of
our international Organization. I also pay tribute to his
predecessor, Mr. Joseph Deiss, and express to him our
gratitude and appreciation for his successful presidency
of the Assembly last year.
It is only natural that I should start by addressing
the current situation in Syria, our position in that
regard and the circumstances and events unfolding
inside and outside of our country. There is no doubt
that States’ positions and circumstances are governed
by their geopolitical realities, related problems and
demands stemming therefrom. At the same time, they
are influenced by repercussions and the price they have
to pay, whether high or low, resulting from positions
they take in response to those issues.
The Syrian Arab Republic is located at the heart
of the Middle East region. Syria’s location has
determined its major role in the politics and balances
of the Arab world and the region in general. For many
decades, Syria faced major challenges and difficulties
with a firm stance against attempts to limit its role and
influence and divert it from the national course it had
charted. It is no secret that Syria has stood firm in
support of national sovereignty and independence in its
national decisions — a position that has remained a
primary pillar of Syrian foreign policy.
Syria has spared no effort in support of the
legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people and in
championing resistance movements. Syria has upheld
its inalienable right to liberate the entire occupied
Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967. At the same
time, Syria has extended a hand of friendship to all
States and established its international relations based
on mutual respect and mutual interests. Through
leverage, it has promoted the centrepiece of Syria’s
national priorities and established policies, namely on
the Middle East question, in efforts to liberate the land
and restore the rights of the people.
Syria was dragged into another confrontation
following the occupation of Iraq. It had to choose
between enduring political siege and isolation or
submitting to demands. Again Syria summoned all of
its might to overcome such a policy, despite the
exorbitant price we had to pay at the expense of our
domestic priorities and interests. We emerged stronger
from that battle, having preserved our independent
decisions and safeguarded our national priorities.
There are two sides to the problem that Syria
faces today. On the one hand, the country needs
people-driven political, economic and social reform.
President Bashar Al-Assad has already declared that
those reforms are needed and timely. He has expressed
a strong desire to accomplish them. But the force of the
political circumstances to which I briefly alluded to
earlier forced internal demands — important as they
were — to take a back seat to other priorities. Our
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overriding priority was to address external pressures
that at times were tantamount to blatant conspiracy.
On the other hand, popular demands and needs
have been manipulated to further objectives alien to the
interests and expressed desires of the Syrian people.
Those demands have become stepping stones used by
armed groups to sow discord and to sabotage our
security, eventually becoming a new pretext for foreign
intervention.
Syria has assumed its responsibility to protect its
citizens through actions to guarantee safety and
stability. It remains vigilant against the danger of
foreign intervention, which takes on different forms
with each passing day. Challenging that does not
diminish our concern for popular demands that were
already accommodated prior to the recent events. In
our view, the needed reforms are those that are now
due, many elements of which have been already met.
They are a work in progress that will continue through
national dialogue and in the context of national unity,
sovereignty and independence.
To shed more light on the situation, I would recall
at this juncture the statement made by President
Al-Assad on 20 June. In his statement, the President
announced many reform measures based on the
following new laws: the political parties act to
guarantee political pluralism; the information act to lay
the ground for free and independent media; the
parliamentary elections act and the local administration
act. The proposed reform measures were to be finalized
by a thorough examination and review of the Syrian
Constitution. The review could eliminate certain
articles to allow for political pluralism and democratic
practices. It could even lead to the framing of a new
Constitution that would guarantee all of these things.
The constitution is the backbone of the political,
economic and social life of all States. That reform
measure will definitely respond to popular demands
and needs. Furthermore, the President left the door
open to different views and proposals on the reform
effort in general. In the televised interview that
followed, the President announced that a timeline had
been set to agree on and implement the proposed
reforms in no more than six months. That is an
extremely important position that requires a serious, in-
depth national dialogue in order to achieve the desired
mechanisms and results.
A comprehensive dialogue started a few weeks
ago in various Syrian governorates. Representatives of
various sectors of Syrian society, including opposition
figures, are participating in the process to examine the
comprehensive political, economic and social
components of the proposed reform package.
We deeply regret the surge in foreign-inspired
activities of armed groups in Syria, which have not
waned and have instead continued to gain momentum.
That is the other side of the coin. We would have liked
for those countries that advocated the need for reform
and change to have supported the official Syrian
position instead of having opted for incitement and
defiance. In fact, the more ground we have covered
towards stability and reform, the stronger the foreign
incitement has become. Armed violence has surged in
tandem with multiple economic sanctions. By targeting
the Syrian economy with sanctions, the United States
and the European Union have jeopardized the interests
and basic daily subsistence needs of the Syrian people.
This course of action cannot in any way be
reconciled with pronouncements about concern for the
interests, security and rights of the Syrian people.
Furthermore, it runs counter to the basic principles of
human rights, in defence of which those States base
their interference in our internal affairs. It must be
recalled that the Charter of our Organization states that
“Nothing contained in the present Charter shall
authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters
which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction
of any state”.
Syria provided our region with a model of
peaceful coexistence among the different segments of
the Syrian population, a model which deserves to be
emulated. Syria opted for secularism to promote its
national unity in view of the religious and ethnic
diversity of the region to which it belongs, a region
that is the cradle of divine religions and the birthplace
of human civilization.
Any objective and realistic analysis of the events
in and around Syria will demonstrate clearly that one
of the purposes of the unjust anti-Syria campaign
currently under way is to attack this model of
coexistence, which has been a source of pride to our
people. How can we otherwise explain media
provocations of financing and arming religious
extremism? What purpose could that serve other than
total chaos, which would dismember Syria — and
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consequently adversely affect its neighbours? What
else could this course of action achieve other than to
spread Western hegemony throughout the countries of
the Mediterranean and to serve Israel’s expansionist
interests?
I assure the Assembly that our people are
determined to reject all forms of foreign intervention in
their internal affairs. We shall continue to achieve
security and stability and to implement the
comprehensive programme of reform through national
dialogue so that, within months, Syria will become a
model of political pluralism and an oasis for peaceful
coexistence among the different segments of its
population.
From this rostrum, I call on the States that have
participated in the unjust campaign against Syria to
reconsider their positions. To them I say, “Our people
will not let you implement your plans and will foil
your schemes”.
I also express our appreciation to the countries
that have stood by our people’s side in this crisis,
pre-empting any harm that could have befallen their
interests and encouraging them to pursue their
aspirations.
For many years, the international community has
considered the two-State solution as the basis for
establishing peace between the Israelis and the
Palestinians. The negotiations between the two sides
that have continued for years have failed to achieve
any progress towards a solution owing to Israel’s well-
known positions and measures. Therefore, the
international community’s pursuit of the recognition of
a Palestinian State on the Palestinian territories
occupied in 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, is
legitimate. It is a positive step towards restoring all
Palestinian rights. Syria calls on the international
community to support that request. We also condemn
the Israeli blockade of Gaza and call on the
international community to shoulder its responsibility
and force Israel to lift the blockade.
Our position on declaring the Middle East a
nuclear-weapon-free zone is well established and well
known. We continue to call for bringing pressure to
bear on Israel to implement international resolutions
that have called on it to accede to the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and to
submit its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic
Energy Agency’s comprehensive safeguards regime.
This measure is of extreme importance to the security
and stability of our region. At the same time, we stress
that all States have the right to acquire nuclear
technologies for peaceful purposes. That right is
guaranteed under the NPT.
We strongly renew the call to lift the embargo
that has been enforced against Cuba for decades.
We all aspire to a more just and secure world.
This international Organization has a major role to play
in that regard. It can do so more competently if some
powerful States gave up attempts to further their own
agendas. Nevertheless, we still hope that the
international community, through this Organization,
will be able to follow the right course so as to bring
about a better world, to which our peoples aspire.