Mideast peace process – Ministerial Declaration/Group of 77 – Letter from Iran (excerpts)

Letter dated 21 November 2001 from the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

  I have the honour to transmit the Declaration adopted by the Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77, which was held at United Nations Headquarters on 16 November 2001 (see annex).

  It would be greatly appreciated if the present letter and its annex could be circulated as a document of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly, under agenda items 22, 26, 27, 29, 90, 95, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 117 and 118.

(Signed) Bagher Asadi
Ambassador
Islamic Republic of Iran
Chairman of the Group of 77

Annex to the letter dated 21 November 2001 from the Ambassador of the

Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

The twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 was held in New York on 16 November 2001.  We, the Ministers, declare our full commitment to the South Summit Declaration and the Havana Programme of Action as the two guiding documents of the South, reflecting the interests and concerns of the developing countries.

We also reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration and call upon the international community and the United Nations system to fully and speedily implement the provisions set out in that Declaration and in other major United Nations conferences and summits and their respective reviews, in particular those related to development and achieving the goal of poverty eradication.

We reviewed global developments and the state of international cooperation.  We, guided by the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and by full respect for the principles of international law, adopted the following declaration:

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III. OTHER MAJOR ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENTS

30. We express our grave concern over the tragic and dangerous situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, which has gravely deteriorated the economic and social conditions of the Palestinian people, and has negatively affected stability and development in the region as a whole.  We call for the immediate and total freeze of settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, an end to the Israeli siege of Palestinian towns and villages and all other forms of collective punishment, as well as the return to the negotiating table.  We reaffirm our support to the Palestinian people in their effort to achieve their inalienable rights, including the right to establish an independent State on their national soil, including Jerusalem.  We also call for an end to Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity.  We reaffirm our support for the Middle East peace process, aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region on the basis of Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and the principle of land for peace.

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