Palestine question/Mideast situation – Ministerial declaration of Group of 77 – Letter from Morocco (excerpts)

Letter dated 1 October 2003 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

  I have the honour to transmit herewith the Ministerial Declaration adopted on the occasion of the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 and China, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September 2003 (see annex).

  On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I would highly appreciate it if you could arrange for the present letter and its annex to be circulated as a document of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly under agenda items 12, 23, 37, 38, 39, 45, 47, 49, 50, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 86, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124 and 127.

(Signed) Mohamed Bennouna
Ambassador
Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Morocco
to the United Nations
Chairman of the Group of 77

Annex to the letter dated 1 October 2003 from the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General 

MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

  We, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 and China, guided by the principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter and by the provisions of the Havana Declaration and Plan of Action adopted by the South Summit, convened at the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 25 September 2003, adopted the following declaration:

1.   We welcome the admission of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste as a full member of the Group of 77.

2.   We reaffirm our commitment to the Millennium Declaration and call upon the international community to fully and speedily implement the provisions set out therein and in other major United Nations conferences and summits.

3.   We pledge to continue to work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the Group of 77 and China and, in this regard, underscore the historic importance of the Fortieth Anniversary of the establishment of the Group of 77 to be commemorated in June 2004.

4.   We reaffirm our commitment to the strengthening of multilateralism and emphasize the need to work towards a key and decisive role of the United Nations in international economic policy-making and global and economic development issues and effectively contribute to the achievement of the development goals and objectives of developing countries in keeping with the provisions of the United Nations Charter.

5.   We welcome General Assembly resolution 57/270 B on the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields, and call for its immediate and full implementation. We note with particular satisfaction that the General Assembly stressed the importance of regular review of the progress made in the implementation of the commitments undertaken in major United Nations Conferences and Summits, as well as of indicator for the assessment of the progress made in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular Goal number eight on Global Partnership for Development. We look forward to the holding of a major United Nations event in 2005 for a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in implementing all the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration. We stress the importance of undertaking such a review in a balanced manner in terms of respective commitments of developing and developed countries.

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Situation in Palestine and the Middle East

51.   We remain gravely concerned over the tragic and dangerous situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, which has resulted in the grave deterioration of 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 complete cessation and end to settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan and end to the recent Israeli occupation and siege of Palestinian cities, towns and villages, which are in violation of international law, relevant United Nations resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, and all forms of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, as well as the return to the negotiation table. We also call for the immediate Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and from the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967, and from all the other Arab occupied territories. We reaffirm our support to the Palestinian people in their effort to achieve their inalienable rights, including their right to establish an independent state on their national soil, including Jerusalem.

52.   We reaffirm our support for the Middle East peace process started in Madrid in 1991, and aimed at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region, in accordance with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978) and the principle of land for peace. In this context, we support the peace initiative adopted by the Arab Summit in Beirut in March 2002.

53.   We call for the full implementation of the Road map Peace Plan for the Israeli-Palestinian track by the concerned parties.

54.   We support the inalienable rights of Lebanon to utilize its waters in accordance with international law and in particular to ensure the social and economic needs of its population in the liberated areas and villages. We also call on Israel to end its air violations of Lebanese sovereignty and other violations that severely damage the security situation which is a critical factor in promoting the tourism industry and the economy.

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