Mideast situation/SecCo report to GA – SecCo meeting – Verbatim records

Provisional

Security Council

Fifty-seventh year 

4616th meeting

Monday, 26 September 2002, 10.30 a.m.

New York

Agenda

Consideration of the draft report of the Security Council to the General Assembly

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

Adoption of the agenda

  The agenda was adopted.

Consideration of the draft report of the Security Council to the General Assembly

 The President (spoke in French): The Security Council will now proceed to the consideration of its annual report to the General Assembly, the draft of which has been prepared by the Secretariat.

  Members of the Council have before them the draft report of the Security Council to the General Assembly for the period from 16 June 2001 to 31 July 2002, as circulated by the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 9 August 2002, and a corrigendum thereto.

  I should like to express appreciation to the Secretariat for the work it has undertaken in preparing this factual report.

  As there is no list of speakers for this meeting, I would invite Council members who wish to take the floor to so indicate to the Secretariat as from now.

  I shall now call on the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs to make an explanatory statement.

 Mr. Kalomoh (Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs): The draft annual report of the Security Council for the period 16 June 2001 to 31 July 2002, to be submitted to the General Assembly in pursuance of Article 24, paragraph 3, of the United Nations Charter, has been prepared by the Secretariat, in line with the revised format agreed upon by the Security Council in 2002.

  The format of the draft report before the Council provides a guide to the activities of the Council in a concise manner. In this connection, I would like to note that this is the first report prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Note by the President of the Council of 22 May 2002, which is contained in document S/2002/199, which were aimed at enhancing the quality of the report and accommodating the views expressed on the previous format.

  Of particular interest is the introduction to the report, which contains an analytical summary of the work of the Council for the period covered by the report.

  The draft report was circulated by me on 9 September 2002, in my capacity as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to the current Members of the Security Council and to the members whose terms of office expired on 31 December 2001 for review and comment, if any.

  A corrigendum containing a change requested by one Council Member is also before the Council.

 The President : At this stage, I wish to thank the Secretariat for having prepared the draft report in a timely manner.

  I would now like to call upon Council members who wish to state their views on this draft report.

 Mr. Mahbubani (Singapore): …

/…

  The Middle East crisis has been aggravated in recent months. However, the Council adopted resolution 1397 (2002), which was a landmark resolution that reaffirmed the vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, can live side by side within secure and recognized borders. We hope that the Quartet, a new diplomatic vehicle, will work to implement it.

/…

 Mr. Wang Yingfan (China) (spoke in Chinese): …

/…

  It is also worth noting that the Council’s role concerning the Middle East-Palestinian question has fallen short of expectations. Despite the statements of the Council and the resolutions it has adopted, the Middle East situation has yet to improve. …

/…

 Mr. Corr (Ireland): …

/…

  On the Middle East, in terms of the Council’s work, we have made considerable progress over the year, with resolution 1397 (2002), adopted in March, affirming the vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, existing side by side within secure and recognized borders. We know where we need to go. What is now important is to redouble the efforts to get there.

  We appreciate the fact that there is now a monthly briefing of the Council on the Middle East. This has been a very valuable and important contribution to the work of the Council on the Middle East.

/…

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

/…

  A number of speakers have spoken on the Council’s work in specific areas, such as conflict resolution in Africa, the Middle East, Asia or other regions. There were also some remarks about the Council’s missions to a number of conflict areas, and statements in some detail about the importance and perspectives of these missions. Speakers have also referred to the Council’s wrap-up sessions over the past few months. In this regard, my delegation is pleased to pay tribute to the efforts by Ambassador Levitte, who introduced an admirable formula under which we would work and which won everyone’s praise. My delegation stresses that, in the light of the remarks made by a number of Council members, it is very necessary and appropriate to maintain these wrap-up sessions.

/…

  However, we have to state that, during the same period, the Council has failed to follow up and implement some of its resolutions. Many delegations with whom we had discussions in the Council, regarding Africa and other parts of the world, expressed their regret that those resolutions were not implemented. Of course, the subject matter becomes even more sensitive when we reaffirm that the Council’s resolutions relate to international peace and security. We think that the lack of follow-up in implementation of these resolutions will have an impact on nations’ perception of the Council and on its credibility. We have raised this point time and again in our statements here.

  I will not go too far here. I would like to cite one resolution that was adopted a couple of days ago — namely, resolution 1435 (2002). A party directly involved has rejected this resolution and defied it despite the request of all Council members to implement it.

/…

 Mr. Koonjul (Mauritius): …

/…

  In some cases, however, the Council has not been able to deal with certain problems in the same successful manner. On the Middle East, for example, while the Council made a tremendous leap by deciding in January 2002 to have regular monthly briefings, unfortunately it has not been able to make real progress in helping with the peace process.

/…

 Mr. Cunningham (United States): …

/…

  Our responsibilities as a Council and as members of the Council compel us to continue efforts to be frank and effective. For example, there should be no mincing of words with regard to the threat to peace posed by self-proclaimed terrorists, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. In the coming days, the Council will be called on to meet the purpose for which it was created, when it addresses the defiance of Iraq and the threat it poses to international peace and security.

/…

  The President (spoke in French): …

/…

  May I take it that the draft report, as corrected, is adopted by the Council?

 There being no objection, it is so decided.

  This decision will be reflected in a note by the President of the Security Council to be issued as document S/2002/1068.

  The Security Council has thus concluded its consideration of the item on its agenda.

 The meeting rose at 1.10 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-178.