STATEMENT BY
H.E.MR. RASHID ABDULLAH AL-NAOMI
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
57TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK, 20 SEPTEMBER 2002

Mr. President,

On behalf of my country, I have the honor to extend to you and your country, the Czech Republic, our congratulations on your election to the. presidency of the fifty-seventh sessions of the General assembly. We are. confident that, with your high level expertise and diplomatic sophistication, you will succeed in achieving the goals of this session. We wish you and the members of your office success.

I also would like to thank your predecessor, his Excellency Dr. Han Seung-soo, for his effective leadership of the previous session.

On this occasion I would like to extend our congratulations to the Swiss federation for its membership in the United Nations, and we look forward to the membership of the Republic of East Timor, which enhances the universality of the Organization.

I also would like to express our appreciation to SecretaryGeneral, Kofi Annan for his wise leadership and his efforts and perseverance in enhancing the role of the United Nations in maintaining the peace, security and, stability in the world.

Mr. President,

The states of the world gather today in a new session for the general assembly, hopeful of reaching more effective and transparent solutions to the world's problems, based on fairness and justice, and to establish peace in the world, which faces instability and imbalance in international relations.

In addition to civil and regional wars, more than half of the world's population suffers from poverty, famine, epidemics and, fatal diseases. There are countries occupying other people's lands, terrorism, organized crime, and illegal drug trafficking. This creates tension and instability in many regions of the world, which endangers the international peace and security.

As international society faces more .challenges, we become more aware of the importance of compliance to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respect to the sovereignty of the international Law in solving, by peaceful means, disputes and conflicts, and instances of occupation.

In this age of globalization and rapid development in information.. and communication technology, the world has become a small village. The fates of the nations of the world have become intertwined more than any time in history. Thus the problems and sufferings of other peoples cannot be ignored because of the geographical distance or cultural differences; the current events in the world prove, without doubt, that the outcomes of conflicts and wars, the problems of poverty, drugs abuse and diseases, extend beyond their geographical borders, reaching to what were safe regions and threaten their stability. For that reason, the establishment of international peace and security is the joint responsibility of all governments and nations as well as their organizations and civil societies. The need for a global partnership, working under the umbrella of the United Nations, to create a comprehensive strategy that takes into consideration international law, human values and people's needs and suffering, can never be overestimated.

Mr. President,

The United Arab Emirates is well aware of the strategic importance of the Arabian Gulf region, and it is aware that the security of the Arabian Gulf cannot be separated from international peace and security. The United Arab Emirates guided by the wise leadership of His Highness Sheik Zaid Bin ° Sultan Al Nahian, the president of the country, believes in ° solving disputes by peaceful means and through implementing international laws. From this position, the United Arab Emirates, calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to solve the issue of the three islands occupied by Iran, Great Tanb, Lesser Tanb, and Abu Moussa, through bilaterally or through the International court of Justice.

We also reaffirm that the United Arab Emirates has complete sovereignty over our three islands, Greater Tanb, Lesser Tanb and Abu Moussa, including their air space, their regional waters, the continental shelf and the economic region related to the three islands which are indivisible parts of the United Arab Emirates.

The United Arab Emirates has frequently, shown good will and a serious, desire to reach a peaceful solution to this is issue of its three islands -through the_ two visits of his Highness Sheik Hamdan Bin Zaid Al Nahian Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Tehran, in addition to mutual visits between the two parties. The United Arab Emirates hopes that those visits will contribute to bringing both points of view closer and reaching a peaceful solution to the issue, thus enforcing the principle of dialogue, peaceful co-existence, trust and good neighborliness.

Mr. President,

We have witnessed, during this session, very important and encouraging developments regarding the Iraqi Issue. The United Arab Emirates welcomes Iraq acceptance of the return of the United Nations inspectors, thus complying with the Security Council resolution, which will spare Iraq and the region from devastations and tragedies. We look forward to a real joint cooperation; one built on the Charter and the international resolutions, which will establish stability and cooperation among the states of the region, and resolve all standing problems hindering the building of trust, stability and collaboration. We call upon the international community to enforce the Iraqi step, exert more effort to solve, the pending issues between Iraq and the United Nations by peaceful means, and to lift the sanctions off the Iraqi people who suffered because under them for 12 years. We also welcome the positive attitude expressed by Iraq towards returning the Kuwaiti national Archive and properties, and we urge him to show more good will and take more effective steps- by freeing the Kuwaiti prisoners of war and the citizens of other countries, returning the rest- of the Kuwaiti properties, respect the sovereignty of Kuwait and refrain from interfering in its internal affairs.

We also reiterate the United Arab Emirates insistence on committing to the resolution adopted by the Arab Summit in Beirut on March 2002, which rejects the use of force or the threat to use it, and any military attack against Iraq, therefore protecting the region from the outcome of another, unnecessary war, and we reiterate the importance of securing the national unity and regional sovereignty of Iraq.

Mr. President,

The United Arab Emirates is very concerned about the dangerous events in the occupied Palestinian lands. We express our sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people in their ordeal. We also denounce the aggression committed by the occupying Israeli forces and we demand the international community, in particular the large influential countries; the United States of America and the European Union, to compel Israel to immediately end all acts of aggression, murder, destruction, closure and displacement of the Palestinian people.

Mr. President,

The United Arab Emirates renews its support of the right of the Palestinians to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state with Al Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. Accordingly, we reaffirm the Arabic peace initiative that was endorsed by the Beirut Summit, and which includes a method for a just and comprehensive settlement that ensures the rights of both parties, and as expressed by the American President George W. Bush speech of establishing a Palestinian state. We also demand that Israel ends its continuous violation of the agreements made within the frame work of the Peace Process and resume the peace talks according to the Un and the Security Council resolutions, in particular resolutions 181, 242, 338, 1397,425 which call for Israel withdrawal from the Palestinian occupied lands including the city of Jerusalem to the 1967 borders, from the Syrian Golan to the line set before 4/6/1967, from the Lebanese lands Shabaa, dismantling all settlements from all the Palestinian and Arabic occupied lands and the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland.

Mr. President,

Maintaining peace and security in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf region, depends to a great extent, on applying a more comprehensive and transparent concept of disarmament especially of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The fact that Israel owns these weapons, plus nuclear weapons, is a direct threat to the regional and international security. Accordingly, we repeat our call upon the international society and international organizations, involved in disarmament issues, to pressure Israel by all effective means to rid itself of its nuclear weapons and to subject its nuclear facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards in order to establish a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf similar to other regions in the world.

Mr. President,

The United Arab Emirates, watches with great concern, the escalation in the tension in South East Asia, especially that between India and Pakistan. We call upon these two countries to deal with their disputes with a sense of joint political responsibility towards the security of the region and the world. We ask them to resume bilateral negotiations to resolve their standing dispute by peaceful means in order to maintain regional and international peace and security.

Mr. President,

International terrorism is a direct threat to the stability of nations and to international peace and economy. As the United Arab Emirates denounces all acts of terrorism whatever their reasons and sources, it reaffirms its commitment to the United Nations resolutions concerning terrorism, it renews its call for an international conference on terrorism to come with a clear definition of terrorism based on the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the international treaties, conventions and covenants.

Mr. President,

Political and Historical events have proven that economic deterioration, poverty, lack of water, debts and foreign occupation, imposes dangerous threats on life resources and the security of human beings. They are a main cause of conflicts, violence, racial cleansing and instability. In accordance with this fact, the leaders of the world insisted, in the work program and the political communique in the Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development, on the joint and diverse responsibility to solve these problems and on the importance of providing the financial resources to achieve the goals of economic, social and environmental development to eradicate poverty, raise the standard of living and achieve global economic development.

The Johannesburg Summit developed goals to reduce poverty, establish sustainable management of natural resources, transfer of environment-friendly technology to developing countries and maintaining drinking water resources as well as applying the patterns of production and consumption provided by the policies and programs of Sustainable Development, at the regional and international level. In accordance with that, the United Arab Emirates, calls upon the governments of the developed countries to comply with what has been agreed on in Johannesburg, especially in reference to developing countries, poor countries and the less developed countries, and in particular the financial resolutions that requires the developed countries to contribute .07% of their national production to help developing, poor states implement development programs in their countries. We also call upon the governments and relevant organizations to comply with resolutions relevant to Sustainable Development. The United Arab Emirates is always initiating and . providing developmental, financial and humanitarian assistance to many countries, especially developing countries, that suffer from civil and regional wars, and natural disasters. We also call upon international financial institutions to. adopt more balanced and fair financial policies, that would lead to alleviating the burden of external debts off the developing countries, give them the chance to participate in making decisions relevant to environment and sustainable development and help them join the global market in order to revive and enhance their national economy so they become productive members; effective in promoting the stability of international economic relations.

Mr. President,

Finally, we hope that the debate of the items of the agenda of the present session will succeed in achieving effective and concrete results in the issues of world peace, and in enhancing the role of the Organization in making the world a better place for the human society.

Peace and God's blessing be with you.