Attack on Al-Aqsa mosque – Greek Foreign Ministry statement – Letter from Greece

Letter dated 12 October l990 from the Permanent Representative of

Greece to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to transmit to you the text of a statement issued by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 9 October 1990, regarding the tragic incidents that occurred in Jerusalem on 8 October 1990 (see annex).

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda items 23 and 35, and of the Security Council.

ANNEX

Statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece

at Athens on 9 October 1990

The Greek Government strongly deplores and condemns the bloody incidents that occurred in Jerusalem. These incidents are particularly grave and dangerous since, according to first reports, armed Israelis burst into the Holy Shrine of Al-Aqsa and opened fire on unarmed Muslims, killing a large number of them.

Anyone interested in the cause of peace and justice in the region cannot but feel painful surprise and revulsion at the outburst of violence, not only because it involved innocent human victims, but also because it charges an already dangerously tense situation in the Middle East, particularly at this critical juncture.

The Greek Government is concerned over the fact that a responsible Government allowed for such incidents to occur, which offend one's sense of justice and humanness, as well as of religious tolerance, which is necessarily interwoven with the place in which three religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – have coexisted for centuries.

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