GA general debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-second session

16th plenary meeting
Wednesday, 3 October 2007, 10 a.m. 
New York

    The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.

Agenda item 8 (continued) 

 General debate

 /…

 The Acting President : I now call on His Excellency Mr. Lam Akol Ajawin, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Sudan.

 Mr. Ajawin (Sudan) (spoke in Arabic ): …

/…

  The fact that the Palestinian question remains unresolved since the establishment of the United Nations decades ago not only tarnishes the credibility of the Organization but also continues to pose a serious threat to international peace and security. It is imperative to conclude a comprehensive, lasting and just settlement of this conflict, especially in the light of continued violent confrontations between the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupying forces.

  The international community should force Israel to comply with international resolutions and fulfil its commitments, including those set out in the Road Map, and enable the Palestinian people to exercise its right to self-determination and to establish its own independent State, with its capital in Al-Quds Al-Sharif. It is also imperative to reach a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, based on Israel’s withdrawal from all the land it occupied in 1967. In this context, and to ensure sustained security and peace for all the peoples in the region, we wish to confirm the need to make the Middle East, without any exceptions, a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

/…

  The Acting President : I now call on His Excellency Mr. Marco Haisiku, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia.

 Mr. Haisiku (Namibia): …

/…

  Similarly, Namibia is deeply concerned about the continuous suffering of the people of Palestine under Israeli occupation. We wish to reaffirm our full and unequivocal support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including their right to return to their land. I reiterate our appeal to the parties to resume the peace process on the basis of international law and all the relevant United Nations resolutions. To this end, the United Nations has a responsibility to assist the process.

/…

  The President : I now call on His Excellency Mr. Claude Heller, chairman of the delegation of the United Mexican States.

 Mr. Heller (Mexico) (spoke in Spanish ): …

/…

  We are following with particular attention recent developments on various aspects of the situation in the Middle East and their impact on international stability. We support efforts aimed at a new peace process between Israel and Palestine, convinced that a final solution can be achieved only through negotiation between the parties with the active support of the international community. We hope that in the very near future the State of Israel and a politically and economically viable Palestinian State can coexist within secure and internationally recognized borders, in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions.

/…

  The President : I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Philip Sealy, chairman of the delegation of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

 Mr. Sealy (Trinidad and Tobago): …

/…

  A reinvigorated Security Council is needed to address the major issues that continue to bedevil contemporary international relations. In the Middle East, the failure to move forward on the peace process has set back global efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The Palestinian people have yet to exercise their legitimate rights to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State in an undivided homeland.

  We call on the Quartet to resume the Road Map process for peace in the Middle East, so that the world can, in the foreseeable future, see two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace, within internationally recognized and secure borders. Additionally, internationally acceptable solutions must be found to address the fate of the Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem and the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. All these matters have remained pending for far too long and the Palestinians should no longer be denied the realization of their statehood.

/…

  The meeting rose at 1.45 p.m.

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. 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. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.