Security Council – Work assessment for 2002 – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Security Council

Fifty-seventh year

4677th meeting

Friday, 20 December 2002, 10.30 a.m.

New York

Agenda

Wrap-up discussion on the work of the Security Council for the current month

Letter dated 19 December 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2002/1387)

The meeting was called to order at 10.45 a.m.

Adoption of the agenda

The agenda was adopted.

Wrap-up discussion on the work of the Security Council for the current month

Letter dated 19 December 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2002/1387)

The President (spoke in Spanish): The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Council is meeting in accordance with the understanding reached in its prior consultations.

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Mr. Corr (Ireland): …

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Specifically, we need more strategic focus on the situation in the Middle East. It is a profound and growing threat to international peace and security. The situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is intolerable and unacceptable. That this situation still prevails is an affront to the international community and reveals our lack of political will in a place of deadly danger and injustice.

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Mr. Kolby (Norway): …

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Another lesson learned is the importance of unity in the Council. It is when we are able to speak with one voice that the impact of our decisions is greatest. This has been demonstrated on several occasions during the past year. Unity is particularly important with regard to one of the most difficult issues before the Council — the situation in the Middle East. Decisions made by the Council in 2002 might not have had an immediate impact on the situation on the ground in that very troubled part of the world. However, the Council has been able to express views that will be important when the parties are again able to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement that will benefit the peoples on all sides. The fact that the Council has expressed a vision for a Palestinian State is important. We should continue to strive for unity in our deliberations on the Middle East. The Council will have an opportunity to do so again this afternoon and, I am certain, on several occasions in the coming year.

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Mr. Negroponte (United States of America): …

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On the Middle East, the Council made an important contribution in 2002 by providing an agreed endgame to this enduring conflict in resolution 1397 (2002), in which, for the first time, the Security Council affirmed a vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders. That resolution was forward-looking and has now become enshrined in the pantheon of historic resolutions which form the basis upon which peace will be negotiated. The Secretary-General and key partners in the international community are deeply involved, as members of the Quartet, in bringing the parties back to the negotiating table.

The challenge for the Council on the Middle East is now before us. We can remain on a constructive path that supports the efforts of the Quartet and others intricately involved in mediation in the Middle East, or we can return to the destructive practice of seeking to pass one-sided resolutions, heaping criticism on one party — that is to say, Israel. We completely disagree with an approach whereby draft resolutions seek to highlight the issue of occupation while neglecting Palestinian responsibility for eliminating terrorism. In 2002, the Council made several steps forward in acknowledging the obvious: suicide bombings destroy prospects for peace, as well as innocent lives. I would ask the question: will the Council have the courage in 2003 to take aim at those groups and their supporters that promote and perpetrate that violence and terror?

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Mr. Mekdad (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): …

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The Council has achieved tangible improvements in the past period. Having regular briefings on the situation in the Middle East was one of the achievements that deserve mention here. The Council, throughout its working years, did not have such an opportunity to discuss the situation in an explosive region that constitutes a real threat to international peace and security. At the same time, we should all be aware of the fact that the Council has not followed up on the implementation of a number of its resolutions which negatively impacts its work and prevents the achievement of real progress to reach a settlement in this and other regions that are conflict-ridden.

Dealing with Council resolutions and the importance of implementing them should be based on equality and a single standard. Syria considers international legality, as represented by the United Nations and all its bodies, including the Security Council, which is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, as one of the main pillars on which it relies in seeking a comprehensive and just peace, particularly in the Middle East, and generally in other conflict-ridden areas of the world.

In this context, Syria views any attempt to keep the Council from dealing closely with the issues relating to the Middle East, under different pretexts, a matter that is not just improper, but actually contradicts the concept of collective security, the Charter and the willingness of the international community to cooperate to find solutions for the challenges faced by our world.

We believe strongly that any attempt to equate the Palestinian people, who are subject to a hateful and continuous Israeli occupation with the terrorist policies of the Israeli Government that contradict a just and comprehensive peace is a clear and flagrant contradiction of the Charter. This is an unacceptable violation of the United Nations role, and of that of the Security Council.

The Israeli occupation of our land, which constitutes the highest form of terrorism, is a question that our Council should confront when there is a discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is a matter that should be terminated as a matter of priority in the Council’s work in order to reach a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, instead of talking about alleged terrorism undertaken by the Palestinian people, who are the real victims of Israeli terrorism.

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Mr. Aguilar Zinser (Mexico) (spoke in Spanish): …

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This year the Security Council took decisions on major conflict situations, maintaining the principle of unity and consensus. This is perhaps one of the most important achievements that we have to celebrate here. There were very few occasions on which the Council’s votes were divided. The unity and consensus achieved by the Council reflect the maturity with which States shoulder their responsibilities, as well as the introduction of working methods and formulas which make it possible to achieve such consensus.

In this respect, Mexico has supported and advocated the idea that the Middle East, including the Palestinian situation, would be considered periodically by all the members of the Security Council, both in public briefings and in consultations. The presence of the situation in the Middle East as an ongoing item on our agenda undoubtedly represents important progress in the search for agreement and consensus in that region, which is afflicted by a conflict which sometimes seems to be unresolvable. We hope the Security Council, by keeping its finger on the pulse of the Middle East and by holding monthly consultations, will provide elements to increase peace and stability in the area. Through these regular consultations, perhaps we can make a contribution to the peace process which is being promoted by the Quartet in the search for a just and lasting solution which could be achieved through the recognition of two States living side by side within secure borders and in conditions of peace and understanding.

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The meeting rose at 1.15 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room C-154A.