Syria

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of this General Assembly session. We are confident that the posts you have assumed in your country and the international respect that you enjoy will facilitate the task entrusted to you in leading the deliberations of this session of the General Assembly to their desired objectives. I would also like to express our appreciation to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Namibia for his efforts in leading the work of the previous session to a successful conclusion. I would be remiss if I failed to thank the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his efforts to maintain the principles and purposes of the Charter and for the distinguished role he has played in crystallizing the idea of convening the Millennium Summit last week. It was indeed an unusual event in United Nations history. The historic Millennium Summit Declaration confirmed unequivocally and clearly the commitment of all the Heads of State and Government of the world to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. We believe that the absence of any substantial difference between the Charter and the Declaration is an important achievement in itself. The historic Declaration issued by the Millennium Summit may be considered, in one way or another, as a renewed vote of confidence in the Charter, particularly, as the world has recently witnessed major changes and dangerous challenges. One may therefore conclude that the principles and purposes adopted by peoples and nations do not undergo major changes with the passage of time. It would be wrong to underestimate the significance of this conclusion for the history of the United Nations. The end of the cold war did not prevent the peoples and nations of the world from denouncing and condemning crimes of aggression, ethnic-cleansing, foreign occupation, oppression, extremism, injustice, corruption, racism and double standards. Nor did this make us hesitate to glorify many noble objectives, such as freedom, peace, equality, solidarity, tolerance, human rights and social justice. It is fortunate that third world countries and poor countries host large populations with bountiful resources and great heritage. This constitutes a safety net for those countries that were able to contribute to maintaining the principles and purposes of the United Nations when drafting the Millennium Declaration. This explains the lack of any reference to the new world order, either in the Millennium Summit Declaration or in any other official text. Regrettably, however, this becomes evident in reality, whereby hegemony seems to have the upper hand in the international arena. Strengthening the role of the United Nations was the main topic on the Summit's agenda. This role would also become clear in reforming the Security 18 Council and expanding its membership. The United Nations membership considers the Council the Organization's primary organ. This reform process should be accomplished by expanding the Security Council membership, the granting of equitable and fair geographical representation and the gradual phasing out of the use of the right of veto, which contradicts the concept of democracy, particularly when its aim is nothing short of undermining the democratic process. United Nations peacekeeping operations have contributed to creating conditions conducive to ending the deterioration of security conditions in many countries of the world. Throughout the past years, the Syrian Arab Republic has done everything it could to preserve the security and safety of United Nations peacekeeping personnel and to ensure that they successfully carry out their missions and mandates. But peacekeeping operations must be confined to enforcing United Nations resolutions and those of international legitimacy. The Security Council has therefore to enforce its resolutions so that peacekeeping operations will not simply become operations to impose the status quo, which makes the achievement of true peace a very elusive objective. The peace process launched in Madrid has been losing its momentum, incentive and compass, day after day and year after year. The Security Council, which has the authority and international legitimacy to enforce its own resolutions, has been kept out of the Middle East peace process. It has become a silent witness to the fact that the peace process in the Middle East has reached a dead end. It has become quite obvious to all those involved in the peace process, both inside and outside our region, that continued Israeli occupation of Arab territories which is sometimes explained by Israel's psychological need for security and at other times by superstitious myths is the major obstacle on the road to peace. Those futile claims, which have no foundation in reality whatsoever, have caused the peace process to become an endless negotiating process with neither end nor resolution in sight. At any rate, the serious and carefully considered negotiations that Syria has conducted have proven to the international community at large, and to Arabs in particular, two main things: first, that Israel is neither desirous of, nor serious about, pursuing a just and comprehensive peace in accordance with United Nations resolutions; and, secondly, that Syria has the right to a full return of the entire Golan, to the 4 June 1967 line, without concessions or compromises. We would like to mention another fact known to our foes and friends alike. That fact is that Syria has unreservedly supported every Arab and Palestinian right during every stage of the peace talks. It did not take those positions to embarrass anyone or to negotiate on their behalf. As a matter of principle, Syria has been, and continues to be, committed to the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to return to their lands, to self-determination, and to establish their independent State on their national soil. On that basis, Syria presented its position clearly and firmly at the meeting of the Jerusalem Committee that was convened in Morocco at the end of last month in support of the rights of Muslims and Arabs to full and uncompromised Palestinian sovereignty over Al-Quds Al-Sharif. The Arabs are an ancient and time-honoured nation known for its religious tolerance. But tolerance is one thing and conceding one's rights is something else. Territory and sovereignty are matters of national dignity that can never be forfeited or compromised. At the Millennium Summit, the countries of the world expressed their belief that we live today in an age of international law and under the United Nations Charter, international legitimacy and human rights, and not in an age of the law of the jungle and futile religious claims to justify the usurpation of other peoples' land by force. This requires from the international community and the United Nations a more firm and non-selective stand in defending the Charter and international law and in prompting Israel to respect international legitimacy and international conventions and to implement the resolutions of the United Nations. The brotherly Lebanese people have achieved a historic milestone, thanks to their solidarity and that of their State, in strongly resisting Israeli occupation. Syria stood by Lebanon firmly in order to ensure the full implementation of resolution 425 (1978). Syria will always stand by Lebanon and support all its national issues, especially the ones concerning the return of all its territory and the return of its hostages held in Israeli jails. In this regard, we urge the donor countries to fulfil their commitments to help Lebanon rebuild what Israel has destroyed, particularly the 19 damage it caused during its occupation of southern Lebanon. From this international forum, Syria would like once again to stress the great importance it attaches to maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq. We call for relieving the suffering of the Iraqi people by lifting the economic sanctions that only affect the people. We also stand against any measures taken against Iraq outside the context of United Nations resolutions so that those resolutions will retain the necessary credibility to bring about their implementation. We also deem it necessary to find a just and humane solution to the question of Kuwaiti and other prisoners of war, within a practical framework agreed upon between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi sides. We do not want the issue of prisoners of war and missing persons to remain outside the human and political framework that will allow us to arrive at a solution. Syria also calls upon the Security Council to quickly and permanently lift the sanctions it imposed against Libya. Libya has delivered on all its commitments under Security Council resolutions. We fully support Libya's demands. In view of the strong, brotherly relations between Syria, the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran, we call upon the two neighbouring countries to pursue negotiations to resolve peacefully the dispute over the three islands on the basis of the principles of good neighbourliness and mutual respect. Syria believes that the establishment of a trilateral committee to pave the way for direct negotiations between Iran and the United Arab Emirates through the creation of favourable conditions is a practical initiative. We hope that it will allow the two parties to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. We would like to welcome the achievements of the representatives of Somalia in forming a temporary Somali parliament and electing Mr. AbdiKassim Salad Hassan as President of democratic Somalia. We consider these achievements as major pillars for the restoration of Somali State institutions. We call upon the international community to redouble its efforts to help Somalis carry out the tasks of reconstruction and rehabilitation. The continued tragic situation in Afghanistan is a source of great concern to us. We are convinced that the problem of Afghanistan can only be solved by stopping the fighting and beginning negotiations aimed at achieving national reconciliation. It must also be solved by finding an acceptable and permanent political settlement that brings about security and stability for the Afghan people. Many Arab and Islamic countries fear that continued and senseless fighting in Afghanistan may lead to undermining the concept of the State in that country and to destroying its heritage and whatever is left of its historic traditions. Syria welcomes the discussions convened at the highest level in Pyongyang in June 2000. We express the hope that this rapprochement between the two Koreas will contribute to achieving the aspirations of the Korean people in reunifying the peninsula through peaceful means. There was a consensus in the statements delivered at the Millennium Summit and in the Summit Declaration about the need to exert all possible efforts to rid humanity of the humiliating and inhumane conditions of extreme poverty, in which more than a billion people live. The Summit stressed the commitment of Member States to basic human rights, as well as to the right of every country to development. We think this will require developing a new economic international order that is just, fair and democratic. It will also require finding a multilateral commercial and financial system characterized by transparency, equality and non-discrimination. We must also find the best mechanism possible to solve developmental problems, especially on the African continent. Such a system should also give preferential treatment to developing countries in order to facilitate investment and the transfer of technology and know-how. That would allow for full, effective and equal participation by the South in the process of decision-making at the international level. Although these requests seem far- fetched now, they will in the final analysis serve all parties and States, whether they be rich or poor, in the North or in the South. We had fervently hoped that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East would have been achieved by the beginning of the twenty-first century and with the ushering in of this new millennium. Nonetheless, we remain optimistic. Peace will remain our strategic choice and that of all peoples who aspire to a bright future in which peace, security and prosperity prevail for human beings everywhere.