Mideast situation – GA general debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-ninth session

6th plenary meeting

Wednesday, 22 September 2004, 10 a.m.

New York

  The meeting was called to order at 3.10 p.m.

…

Address by Mr. Oscar Berger Perdomo, President of the Republic of Guatemala

  The President (spoke in French): The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of Guatemala.

  Mr. Oscar Berger Perdomo, President of the Republic of Guatemala, was escorted into the General Assembly Hall.

  The President (spoke in French): On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations Mr. Oscar Berger Perdomo, President of the Republic of Guatemala, and to invite him to address the Assembly.

  President Perdomo (spoke in Spanish): …

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  Guatemala is conscious of the divisions that persist in the Middle East, Asia and Africa among neighbouring countries. We earnestly hope that the disputes between them can be resolved through dialogue and other peaceful means, thus enabling all peoples of the world to be represented here without rejection or discrimination.

… We also wish to voice our earnest hope that the difficult situation prevailing in the Middle East, which has deteriorated of late, will be resolved in conformity with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and 1402 (2002).

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Address by Mr. Elías Antonio Saca González, President of the Republic of El Salvador

  The President (spoke in French ): The Assembly will now hear an address by the President of the Republic of El Salvador.

  Mr. Elías Antonio Saca González, President of the Republic of El Salvador, was escorted into the General Assembly Hall .

 The President (spoke in French ): On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Mr. Elías Antonio Saca González, President of the Republic of El Salvador, and to invite him to address the General Assembly.

 President Saca González (spoke in Spanish ): …

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  The complex Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a source of enormous concern to our country, given the incessant violence, the lack of control over terrorist groups and the ever-growing difficulty of returning to dialogue and political understanding. Our country reiterates, as it has done consistently, its support for any effort and measure to open space for a negotiated political solution that takes into account the legitimate interests of the parties directly involved.

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Address by Mr. Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia

  The President (spoke in French ): The Assembly will now hear an address by the Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia.

  Mr. Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia, was escorted into the General Assembly Hall .

 The President (spoke in French ): On behalf of the General Assembly, I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations His Excellency Mr. Charles Gyude Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of the Republic of Liberia, and to invite him to address the General Assembly.

 Chairman Bryant : …

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  The continued existence of conflicts in the Middle East provides a source of worry. After decades, it is time that a workable solution be found to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

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Address by Mr. Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic

 The Acting President : The Assembly will now hear an address by the Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic.

Mr. Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic, was escorted to the rostrum.

 The Acting President : I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Pedro Miguel de Santana Lopes, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic, and inviting him to address the General Assembly.

 Mr. Lopes (Portugal) (spoke in Portuguese; English text provided by the delegation) : …

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  For the maintenance of international security, it is also essential that the Organization continues to push for the resumption of the Middle East peace process. The existing status quo is unacceptable. Israel and Palestine need to learn to coexist in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders and without artificial partitions.

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Address by Mr. Marc Forné Molné, Prime Minister of the Principality of Andorra

  The Acting President: The Assembly will now hear an address by the Prime Minister of the Principality of Andorra.

Mr. Marc Forné Molné, Prime Minister of the Principality of Andorra, was escorted to the rostrum.

 The Acting President: I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Marc Forné Molné, Prime Minister of the Principality of Andorra, and inviting him to address the General Assembly.

 Mr. Forné Molné (Andorra) ( spoke in Catalan; English text provided by the delegation ): …

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  There is not much use in wondering now if the results would have been different, and the dangers facing us today less severe, if different policies had been applied after the criminal and unforgivable attacks of 11 September 2001; if the peace process in Israel and Palestine had been more successful; or if we in the United Nations had been able to play a different role. Granted, our response, as the United Nations, to other international crises has been imperfect, and we are constantly striving to rectify the way in which we approach such issues. But the results have been invaluable. Our efforts averted worse bloodbaths, greater harm to the oppressed and ever more extreme trauma and despair.

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 The Acting President: I now call on Mr. Rashid Abdullah Al-Noaimi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates.

 Mr. Al-Noaimi (United Arab Emirates) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  The United Arab Emirates believes that settlement of the Middle East question cannot be achieved with the position of a de facto situation of occupation, settlement, and siege of the Palestinian people, who are now facing the worst humanitarian crisis in their history because of the acts of arbitrary killing, destruction, starvation and unjustified mass detentions by the Israeli authorities. The United Arab Emirates affirms that continuation of the Israeli aggression will inevitably lead to more violence and deterioration in the security situation.

  We therefore recall the historical, political and legal responsibility of the United Nations and the Quartet, which is now responsible for finding a settlement of the Palestinian question through obliging Israel, the occupying Power, to unconditionally comply with the terms of the road map and other relevant international resolutions, especially those issued by the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly that call for dismantling the racist separation wall in the West Bank, as it is considered illegal and null and void.

  We also affirm that establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region depends on the ability of the international community to end Israel’s intransigence, on revitalization of the peace process and on full Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan and the Shab’a farms. It depends also on the establishment of a Palestinian State with its capital at Al-Quds al-Sharif, pursuant to the relevant international resolutions and the fundamentals of the existing Arab peace initiative, which is based on the principle of land for peace. In that context, we also affirm the importance of respecting the wishes of the Lebanese people and of not interfering in its internal affairs.

  Attaining and maintaining balance in the security situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region is today a matter of high priority. It requires a comprehensive, non-discriminatory, confidence-building policy that will lead to the elimination of all existing arsenals of weapons of mass destruction as part of an international process of non-proliferation. Here, we look forward to the outcome of the recent visit of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to a number of countries in the region, which was aimed at convincing their Governments to relinquish the nuclear arsenals that pose a threat to neighbouring countries.

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 The meeting rose at 8.30 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.