EGYPT

Mr. President,

It is a great pleasure to convey to you and to your friendly country, Finland, my sincere congratulations upon your election to the presidency of the General Assembly. I am confident that your leadership of the fifty fifth session will be most effective and able.

I would also like to express our sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Dr. Gurirab, the Foreign Minister of sisterly Namibia for his exceptional leadership of the previous session.

I would also like to convey my congratulations to the Secretary-General for his good preparation for both the Millennium Summit and Assembly. We appreciate his efforts to maintain and promote the role of the organization and to strengthen its effectiveness and credibility.

Mr. President,

Like others, we have said that the world, at the threshold of the twenty first century, is witnessing rapid developments. Some of which are positive developments that open the door to the progress and prosperity of mankind. Others are negative and pose serious challenges that must be confronted and resolved. The convening of the Millennium Summit and Assembly, at this delicate stage of modem history, comes as an important milestone in the international system and the role of the United Nations. The two occasions constitute a unique forum to review the state of the world, its developments, and to take stock of the future of the United Nations in order to enable it to occupy its central place in the international system, hence, lead the movement of change on the basis of a general consensus.

Mr. President,

The goal of the establishment of a stable and effective system of collective security, through dialogue and cooperation in a context of democracy at the international level, has been on of the most important objectives of the United Nations. Undoubtedly, this objective remains, and rightly so, our foremost goal. Regardless of what took place during the second half of the twentieth century, the important matter now is for us to allow the UN to achieve its objectives, which are the objectives of us all. This can be done through adapting its work to the current international variables ‑which must take the United Nations seriously . This might very well be the thrust of the Secretary‑General's report to the Millennium Assembly.

In our opinion, the first step down this road is coming to an agreement among us on a new, further developed, indeed a modem definition of "collective security" for the coming decades.

Security, in its most simple and realistic definition and form, is based on three basic and organically linked rights; namely, the right to live in peace and stability free from the scourges of war, mass destruction and armed conflicts; the right to a decent life free from poverty, destitution and want; and the right to live in a healthy environment free from pollution, disease, virulent epidemics and negative social phenomena.

A cursory glance at the state of the three aforementioned rights (the right to peace, the right to development and the right to a healthy environment) would reveal that, during the last decade of international transformations, those rights have become exposed to new threats while the existing ones have been exacerbated to a threatening manner grave repercussions.

After the demise of the Cold War and the end of the tensions of the conflict between the two superpowers, international peace has become exposed to a new kind of threat, namely, those resulting from the disintegration of some states, the collapse of their national structures and the fall of their peoples prey to internal strife, and negative foreign intervention.

Globalization, the global market, the inforomation and communication revolution and the emergence of new kinds of economic activities, all hold the promise of unlimited progress. Yet, they equally carry with them the danger of widening the yawning gap between the developed and the developing worlds.

As for the healthy environment, whole continents are suffering from epidemics, environmental degradation, backwardness, and the spread of ethnic wars as well as the increased tragedies of refugees.

Africa, a continent of great promise, potential and ambition, is the region most affected by that fateful triangle; armed civil conflicts, poverty and economic backwardness, degraded environment, natural disasters, deadly diseases and epidemics.

There is a belt of tensions encircling the continent. Economic difficulties and problems continue. Diseases such as the AIDS pandemic, malaria and the cholera continue to spread at an alarming pace. Africa has reached an untenable situation. A situation which requires immediate and firm attention in order to help extricate itself from that quagmire.

I must reiterate, in this regard, that the African States, through the Organization of African Unity and its agencies, are discharging their responsibilities as best as they can. They are taking the necessary measures and steps to place themselves on the right path toward a better future. A special mention should be made to the OAU mechanism of conflict resolution, the efforts for the strengthening of peacekeeping capabilities through sub regional groupings, the establishment of common markets and economic groupings such as COMESA, SAADC and ECOWAS. Our continent is indeed moving towards a form of unity on the basis of the resolutions of the Lome summit, which will be followed up at the upcoming Sirt summit.

An agreement was concluded recently in Arusha on the settlement of the conflict in Burundi. A new President of Somalia, Mr. Abdelqader Salat, was elected after the constructive efforts of the government of sisterly Djibouti. These two examples prove Africa's ability to deal with some of its own problems. Yet it cannot be left alone, without the backing and support of the international community in particular in the field of peacekeeping and peace making. The UN must play its full role.

Mr. President,

The achievement of the goal of establishing an effective system of collective security and dealing successfully with the new challenges facing the international community, require, as I mentioned earlier, bettering the performance of the UN and adapting it to the demands of these goals.

In his message to the Millennium Summit last week, President Mubarak stressed the need to pay special attention to two absolute priorities in this regard. The first, is the maintenance of international peace. The second, is supporting the efforts for development, the elimination of poverty and narrowing the widening gap between the rich and the poor in our world.

Allow me to address these priorities and stress their linkage to a number of important subjects and necessary steps:

First: There is an urgent need to strengthen and reform the UN in general. There is also a similar need to reform and restructure the Security Council and to increase it credibility. We are determined to continue our contribution to the current dialogue on a comprehensive and balanced package deal on the expansion of both the permanent and non‑permanent membership of the Council which would enable the Council to be more representative. It will also reflect the overwhelming majority of the developing countries members of the organization. We are fully committed to the positions expressed by the Non Aligned Movement and the OAU in this regard. We reiterate the need for the expansion of the Council to be accompanied by a reform of its methods of work and by a revision of the use of the veto with a view to rationalizing it.

I would like to repeat here what I had mentioned before, namely that Egypt has a long history of regional and international contribution. It plays a significant role on the African, Arab, and Islamic levels as well as in the Middle East and among the developing countries and emerging economies. In addition Egypt has made many contributions to support the activities of the UN and to achieve its objectives. It has also contributed to the Organization's peacekeeping operations. All this makes Egypt eminently eligible and qualified to shoulder the responsibilities of a permanent membership in an expanded Security Council within the framework suggested by the African heads of States and governments since 1997.

Second: There is an equally urgent need to restore the role of the General Assembly in the maintenance of peace ‑ in accordance with the provisions of the Charter ‑especially when the Security Council fails to discharge its primary responsibility in this realm. This would ensure that any collective action or measures would enjoy the international legitimacy represented by the Organization. There is a need to further develop UN peace keeping operations and to provide them with a rapid deployment capability. There is also a need for concerted efforts to be made to increase the capacity of States, particularly African states, to participate in UN peace keeping operations, or those of regional and sub‑regional organizations, which are mandated and financed by the UN. Egypt will also address these important issues when the General Assembly will be discussing the Brahimi Report.

These considerations must be kept in mind when we address the way to develop the conceptual and practical framework of peace making, peace building and peace keeping. New ideas such as humanitarian intervention and the preventive deployment of forces have since last session started to gain currency. We have called, and continue to call for the need to discuss those ideas, among ourselves, with the highest degree of frankness and transparency. Those ideas impinge on the concept of sovereignty. Some tend to belittle the value and importance of sovereignty when the matter pertains to the sovereignty of others. Those very same tend also to consider it sacred and inviolable when the matter pertains to their own sovereignty.

Third: The sanctions regime, as one of the component parts of the measures taken within the current system of collective security, needs a thorough review. Sanctions cannot last indefinitely, nor can they cause human suffering for tens of millions of people. They cannot result either in massive and destructive harm to the economic structures, the infrastructure or the social fabric of states. Sanctions must not lead to the creation of angry generations who will continue to be embittered by their suffering even after the sanctions are lifted.

Fourth: There is a need to recognize the importance of the continued and serious consideration of the question of disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament, which are the most destructive and pose the greatest threats. The priority of nuclear disarmament must not be overshadowed by the increased attention paid to the small arms and light weapons and antipersonnel land mines. That is not to say, however, that we do not recognize the importance of these subjects or the need to deal with them in a comprehensive and appropriate manner. In this regard, we would like to reaffirm the initiatives made by Egypt for the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons. We welcome the results of the Sixth Review Conference of the NPT in the field of nuclear disarmament in general. We welcome in particular the Conference's recognition of the specificity of the situation in the Middle East and its reaffirmation of the continued validity, and the importance of the implementation of the resolution on the Middle East adopted by the Review and Extension Conference of 1995. We also welcome the proposal of the Secretary‑General to hold an international conference to achieve the objective of nuclear disarmament as adopted in the final document of the Millennium Summit last week. This will constitute a step towards the implementation of our proposal to convene an international conference to consider ridding the world of nuclear weapons within a specified time period.

Fifth: With the accelerated globalization and trade liberalization, the gap between the rich and poor countries is widening in a manner that threatens with grave dangers. The comparison between the patterns of production and consumption, and the standards of living, in the developing and the developed worlds is both stark and shocking. Narrowing this gap and correcting this imbalance in the international structure is not merely a moral obligation, but rather an essential requirement of vital importance. An international partnership must be established to achieve this objective.

The call for social justice within states must be accompanied by a similar call to achieve that same justice in the sharing of the benefits of progress, globalization, the information and communication revolution and of trade liberalization among the members of the international family in the North and the South alike. We truly need to give globalization a human face and an equilibrium that would enable it to contribute to bridging that gap.

UN literature is replete with studies on the problems and obstacles to development and the elimination of poverty. They analyze the causes, portray the results and repercussions, and determine what has to be done on the national, regional and international levels. The report of the Secretary-General to the Millennium Summit and Assembly as well as the final document adopted by the Summit last week, have made a new addition to this literature. Yet, this is no longer sufficient. In several international conferences, we adopted plans and programmes of action containing clear commitments for the mobilization of the financial resources necessary to implement their recommendations. Implementation has not been at the level of the commitments contained in those documents.

A few months ago, we reviewed the progress made in the implementation of the recommendations of the International Conferences on Population, Women, and Social development ... But what was the result of these reviews? What are the ways to face the obstacles that have made the progress in the implementation of the recommendations of those conferences below our expectations?

We have adopted the objective of halving poverty in the world by the year 2015. What is the course charted for achieving this objective? And what commitments have been made to mobilize the financial resources necessary for its achievement?

What about the numerous programmes and initiatives for African development? Have their achievements been commensurate with the magnitude of the problems facing the continent? Is it not time that a clear commitment going beyond the current initiatives be made to lift the burden of foreign indebtedness that is crushing Africa?

We need a genuine partnership between the North and the South. We need a real and effective support by the donors and the international financial institutions to implement the efforts of development and the elimination of poverty, not only as a moral value, expressed as freedom of fear from want, as mentioned in the Secretary‑General report, but also as a vital objective connected to the establishment of world peace and stability.

Sixth: In the same vein, an attempt to place the responsibility for the achievement of development and the elimination of poverty on the shoulders of the developing countries alone is both dangerous and shortsighted, because it undermines the concept of international cooperation, which is one of the cornerstones of the world system, and because it ignores the repercussions of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in our world, that gap which is now sixteen times larger than it was in the 1960's.

There is also an attempt to link international cooperation and the support of the South by the North with concepts and values, such as democracy, good governance and human rights. We support those values in themselves, but we reject the new conditionality they represent. Questions of democratic transformation, improved governance and administration, increased transparency and accountability and the promotion of respect for human rights cannot be dealt with in isolation from questions of development, poverty, and subsistence existence. What is needed is an integrated and comprehensive effort to lift the society as a whole at all levels.

Should not the call for democracy within states be matched with a similar call for democracy among states and in international organizations? Should not the call for the rule of law be accompanied by a similar call for respect for international legality, the sovereignty of states, and the rights of peoples? Could good governance and administration be achieved in the absence of a parallel effort for the development of human resources and building their capacities? Is it enough to pay attention to the civil and political rights of political people while ignoring their economic, social and cultural rights, foremost among which is the inalienable right to development? The realization of all these values is a lofty goal we strive to achieve without conditional ties or diktat.

Seventh: The success of the development efforts of the peoples of the world will depend at this stage on their efficient use of the tools of the new age particularly information technology. The technological revolution and technological leaps have led to the widening of the gap between the haves and the have‑nots of those tools. Nevertheless, the information and knowledge revolution is of such a nature as to enable it to contribute to narrowing the gaps between the countries of the world.

One of the most important gaps that must be faced is " the digital divide". This divide is most evident in the wide discrepancy between developed and developing countries in the fields of communication infrastructure, technological capabilities, the use of knowledge to enhance development, the number of internet users ... etc.

Mr. President,

This has been an overview of some of the foundations on which the process of the development of the work of the organization and the rationalization of the new international system must be based in the coming years.

The attention we pay to these questions does not diminish our attention to other issues. Though regional in character, they constitute an element and a mainstay of the international peace and the collective security we desire. Among those questions, I would like to concentrate on the questions of peace in the Middle East and the situation in Sudan. These two issues are of utmost priority to Egypt, and undoubtedly to many in the Arab world, Africa and the international community at large.

Mr. President,

The Arab Israeli conflict addresses vital issues to the lives of peoples and the future of nations, issues such as the recognition of legitimate rights, sovereignty over national soil, the inalienable right of self determination, the inadmissibility of acquisition of land by force, and the right of all states to live within secure borders, which are directly related to international and regional security.

The logic, which must govern the peace process in the Middle East, and guide the parties to it, should not stem from the assumption of dealing with a permanent foe or opponent. Instead, it must aim at turning past animosity into good neighbourliness, normal relations among the peoples and the states of the region. What is at stake is the security of the region and the security and prosperity of the coming generations, not the short‑term political considerations.

We are facing a clear option between either settling the issue in a real-estate manner, where meters, miles or the tens of them, are the demands of one party, hence keeping alid over the seeds of tension and conflict; or between seeking, with a clear political will, to establish a just and lasting peace, where the rights of each party will be secured and its obligation well defined along with the necessary international guarantees. This latter option will be based on international legitimacy. This would apply to the Israeli-Syrian track, and to the Israeli‑Palestinian track. No doubt that the overwhelming majority of states, communities, and people, support the achievement of a just solution, which would not tilt to one party at the expense of the other. The majority would opt for peace, justice, and look forward positively to the future. This reality states clearly that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, Arabs and Israelis, want peace clear and clean and not partial, disfigured, or missing, which would at the end of the day be more of a headache than a solid peace.

In this regard, I wish to state that President Arafat, and the Palestinian people, are facing one of two options: either a non‑solution or a bad solution, ‑ a policy which will never garner support or appreciation and never culminate in a viable solution. As for "flexibility", which has been at the forefront of the discourse lately, it should only mean flexibility within the realm of international legitimacy and not outside of it. If we speak about flexibility over Jerusalem, this cannot by any means mean accepting Israeli sovereignty over the Holy Mosque ‑ Al Haram al Sharif ‑ but could instead mean arrangements for the new Palestinian State's to respect the Holy sites, and guaranteeing free access to them, and their protection, as it would be assumed that the sovereign Palestinian State, as a full fledged member of the international community ‑ would be a responsible one.

The peace process is only but a few miles away from the end, and we hope that it will not take long years to cross these few miles, for both Syria and Palestine. We also hope that the Sponsors of the peace process will be wise and able to propose honest solutions to the parties so as to enable the honest broker to lead the negotiations into a safe ending. At this juncture I would like to salute President Clinton's enthusiasm and indefatigable efforts at steering the peace process in an eleventh hour attempt to reach a solution under his administration and under his guidance.

To achieve this objective, it is inescapable to uphold a governing principle that cannot be circumvented, namely the full withdrawal from all the occupied Arab territories, Syrian and Palestinian, including East Jerusalem, in return for Israel's right to be integrated as a partner in the Middle East enjoying equal rights to security, peace and cooperation. This is the essence of Resolutions 242 and 338. It is also the essence of the principle of "Land for Peace".

Durable peace and security can only be established on these bases. If the Arab territories or any part thereof remained under occupation, if any question was settled in a manner inconsistent with the principles of right and justice, then that would constitute a time bomb ready to explode at any time. The desired peace and security cannot be fully realized without the establishment of a full‑fledged independent Palestinian State.

Mr. President,

The stability of peace and security in the Middle East is connected to the need for a serious consideration of the question of armaments in the Middle East. Diffusing the tension, in a permanent manner, necessitates dealing with the problem of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery vehicles. This will also contribute directly to the maintenance of international peace and security. Peace and stability in the Middle East will not be complete or durable without the establishment of a comprehensive regional security system. This system must ensure the control of the quantity and quality of armaments in the region. It must also establish a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East in accordance with the initiative of President Mubarak which enjoys world wide understanding and support.

Mr. President,

The Sudan is a State of unique character in its connectedness. It is a major component of the Arab world while being an integral part of the African community. It's stability is also vital for the security and stability of the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea and the Nile Basin. Therefore, the importance attached by Egypt to this brotherly country does not only stem from the fact that it is Egypt's strategic twin, but also from the fact that it is a central factor of the security of a vast and vitally important region.

Many efforts have been made, and many initiatives have been put forward, to achieve peace in the Sudan. They were of course all made in good faith. Yet, they all dealt with the situation from one narrow perspective; that of Southern Sudan versus the North. Consequently, Egypt and Libya saw the need to complement those efforts with a comprehensive perspective which aimed at achieving a wide national reconciliation encompassing all the factions and the parties to the question. The objective is to create a new Sudan that lives in stability and harmony within a basic framework from which there can be no deviation. By this I mean, the unity and territorial integrity of the Sudan, the equality among its citizens and the consensual self‑determination by all its citizens and component parts which would comfort the Sudanese People and all of its neighbours.

The Egyptian‑Libyan initiative has gone a long way in bringing the views of the parties closer. The coordination of this initiative with that of IGAAD is possible. Efforts will continue to ensure the convening of a conference on national reconciliation to achieve peace in that important country.

The establishment of peace in the Middle East, in the Horn of Africa, and in the continents of Asia and Africa as a whole is a necessary condition to achieve world stability. The situation in Afghanistan, Kashmir, the Caucasus, Sri Lanka, the continued tragedy of Iraq, the wars in Africa and their attendant social, economic problems all pose serious questions about the new world order, its credibility, and indeed about its very existence. It is necessary to start acting quickly in order to face these problems in a context of international legitimacy and within the United Nations.

Mr. President,

Amidst all that, the United Nations stands as an expression of the will of the international community. The purposes and principles of its charter are a guiding beacon.

Let this Millennium Summit and Assembly be a new turning point that will put us on the right path towards a world of greater security, justice and stability, a world that builds upon the achievements of the twentieth century and closes the chapter of its grave errors.

Thank you.