Morocco

I should like to begin by congratulating Ambassador Jan Eliasson, on behalf of the delegation of Morocco, on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at this historic session and by wishing him success in his noble task. I should also like to express to his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jean Ping, Foreign Minister of the brotherly State of Gabon, our sincere thanks and profound appreciation for his efforts as President of the General Assembly during the fifty- ninth session and for the patience and dedication that he showed in his excellent conduct of the preparatory work for the High-level Plenary Meeting, thereby ensuring the success of the summit, which marked the sixtieth anniversary of our Organization. I should also like to pay tribute to the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for his commendable efforts to improve the structure of the Organization and enhance its working methods and effectiveness. Last week’s summit meeting was a key event in the history of the United Nations and marked a turning point in the Organization’s activities, not just because of the impressive number of very distinguished participants, but also because of the importance of the outcome document (resolution 60/1), which was adopted as a result of the contribution of all members. In this regard, the Kingdom of Morocco supports the proposals submitted by the Secretary-General with a view to ensuring follow-up of the outcomes of the various international conferences on development issues. Although it failed to meet our expectations, the summit outcome document nevertheless reiterated our international commitments; it paves the way for strengthening the role and effectiveness of the Organization and adapting it to meet the new challenges posed by global developments. The Kingdom of Morocco would like to reaffirm its readiness to contribute to the implementation of the recommendations of the summit and to participate in the international effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). My country has undertaken a number of proactive national initiatives relating to ensuring respect for human rights and the establishment of an integrated and modern society in which women play an active role in development. Many of these are set out in the National Initiative for Human Development, announced by His Majesty King Mohammed VI on 18 May. That initiative reflects Morocco’s willingness to create a development model based on a successful association of modernity, democratization and economic openness. That model is also aimed at achieving a sustained improvement in our human development index, within a spirit of collective participation, solidarity, equal opportunity, the dissemination of knowledge and the provision of basic social services. The end of the era of ideological division and the rise of a new world order has called the attention of the international community to new challenges posed by the scourges of terrorism, hunger, poverty, backwardness, illiteracy and pandemic disease, as well as the increasing number of refugees fleeing from the disasters of war and destruction and the growing number of ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts and separatist trends. Since the events of 11 September 2001, the international community has grown increasingly aware of the threat of terrorism and of the need to combat it by all available means and to address its root causes and underlying motives. The Kingdom of Morocco, which has itself been subjected to the scourge of terrorism, has participated 4 in efforts to combat it through the elaboration of legal instruments and practical arrangements at the national, regional and international levels. During this session, the Kingdom of Morocco will continue to contribute to efforts to adopt a comprehensive convention against terrorism, thereby complementing its participation in the elaboration of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. As for development challenges, our African continent is the only region that will not be able to achieve the MDGs within the specified time frame unless the international community provides full support. In this regard, African countries acknowledge that they must rely, first and foremost, on their own human and material resources. However, Africa’s economic take-off can be achieved only through an efficient and realistic partnership involving all the parties concerned, including donor countries and international and regional organizations. That partnership must be founded on an integrated and sustained process that benefits the existing North- South and South-South cooperation mechanisms. Convinced of the necessity to collectively combat the ills that are besetting our African continent, Morocco has always taken the lead in supporting and encouraging any initiative aimed at freeing the African peoples from their stark predicament. Thus, on more than one occasion, the Kingdom of Morocco has voiced full support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development as an integrated and comprehensive action plan designed to solve the persistent economic and social problems that have plagued our continent since the era of independence. On the other hand, Morocco has always shown its readiness to contribute to conflict resolution in Africa by bringing together belligerent parties and by strengthening the ties of brotherhood and good neighbourliness among the States of western Africa, as well as through the participation of the Royal Armed Forces of Morocco in peacekeeping operations conducted under the auspices of the United Nations in Africa. The Kingdom of Morocco welcomes the decision by the Group of Eight to cancel the debt of least developed African countries. I would also like to recall that His Majesty King Mohammed VI was among the first to initiate such a move. During the first European Union-Africa Summit, which was held in Cairo, His Majesty announced the cancellation of the debt of least developed African countries, opened Morocco’s market to their products and granted them customs exemptions. The success of Africa’s economic take-off remains contingent upon the success of regional integration throughout the continent. The Kingdom of Morocco therefore believes that the reactivation of the Maghreb Arab Union is a political imperative, an economic necessity and a historical reality that responds to the aspirations of the peoples of the region and reflects the expectations of our partners, especially those in the Mediterranean region, with whom we are striving to reinforce our partnership as we prepare to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Barcelona process. For those reasons, Morocco is working to reactivate the Union’s machinery and to remove any obstacles that might hinder its relaunching on a sound, constructive and meaningful basis. In this context, Morocco would like to reaffirm its steadfast commitment to working closely with the Secretary- General and his Personal Envoy and Special Representative, as well as with all parties concerned, in order to break the current stalemate and reach a negotiated political solution to the artificial conflict with respect to the Moroccan Sahara. Because of its geostrategic nature, that conflict between two brotherly neighbouring countries, Morocco and Algeria, requires the involvement of our brethren in Algeria in a serious and constructive dialogue with a view to putting an end to it once and for all. His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in his most recent Throne Day speech, affirmed Morocco’s willingness “to engage in serious negotiations with a view to reaching a final solution that would win United Nations support and grant the inhabitants of the southern provinces autonomy within the sovereignty of the Kingdom and its territorial and national integrity”. Pending the involvement of all parties in that negotiation process, it remains urgent to follow up on the humanitarian aspect of the problem by disclosing the fate of all Moroccan missing persons and prisoners. The International Committee of the Red Cross was unable to establish contacts with those persons or to discover their place of detention. In addition, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should be allowed to undertake a fair and 5 free census of Moroccan citizens being held in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, who should be freed and allowed to exercise their right to return to their homeland. The Arab region, which continues to experience recurrent crises as well as new ones equally violent and fierce, looks to the Organization and to other international and regional actors for their assistance in solving them. In that regard, we hope that the ray of optimism that shone recently in the Middle East, prompting us to engage in cautious optimism, will be supported by serious and brave measures that will revive the peace process and put it back on track. The Kingdom of Morocco welcomed the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and considers it an important and positive decision on the path towards full implementation of the road map. Morocco, which has always striven tirelessly and effectively to keep open the channels of communication and dialogue among the peoples of the Middle East, reaffirms its active commitment to promoting a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that will lead to the establishment of a final, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East through the reactivation of the road map, the guaranteed establishment of a free Palestinian State with Al-Quds as its capital, and the withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Syrian and Lebanese territories. His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, has reaffirmed his resolve to continue to actively pursue and support all peace efforts and to work to preserve the Arab and Islamic identity of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its status as a place of coexistence and tolerance among the three revealed religions. With regard to the situation in the brotherly State of Iraq, the Kingdom of Morocco, although appreciating highly the continuous and intensive efforts to re-establish stability, peace and reconstruction in Iraq, and although following the recent political progress with great interest, affirms that the participation of all constituents of Iraqi society is needed to build the democratic institutions of the new Iraqi State and to preserve its national unity. Moreover, the international community must help the Iraqi people to overcome the ongoing crisis by creating the conditions necessary for peace and stability. Reforming the United Nations to enable it to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, restructuring its organs and bodies and updating their mandates will require not only that its working methods be improved, but also that the Organization regain its natural and leading role as a framework for constructive dialogue and as a forum for creative interaction among the various intellectual currents and religious and cultural trends. In that context, Morocco commends the Secretary-General for his decision to appoint a High- level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations and to establish a new cultural world order based on tolerance and coexistence. We support diversity and unity of visions and goals as contributions to meeting the challenges of the new millennium.