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

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-fifth session

8th plenary meeting

Friday, 8 September 2000, 3 p.m.

New York

The meeting was called to order at 3:10 p.m.

Addresses on the occasion of the Summit (continued)

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Mr. Ndombasi (Democratic Republic of the Congo) (spoke in French): …

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Given our experience, therefore, what must we tell the United Nations so that henceforth it will not be satisfied with merely observing what is happening, but will implement its own resolutions? We are not going to wait 40 years, as in the case of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) on Palestine; only now are attempts being made to implement that. We are not going to wait 40 years for a Camp David-style meeting to take place, or 40 years for the President of the United States to act before Security Council resolutions 1234 (1999), 1291 (2000) and 1304 (2000), which affect us, are implemented. We are not going to wait that long. Our patriotism and spirit of nationalism demand that we put an end to the violation of those principles that have brought us all here. Such violations make those who have occupied our country for two years unworthy of participating in this millennium celebration.

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The Co-Chairperson (Finland): The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bahrain.

Shaikh Al-Khalifa (Bahrain) (spoke in Arabic): …

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Today, while efforts are ongoing in the search for a solution to this conflict, we hope that the efforts of the sponsors of the peace process, the United States of America in particular, along with other regional and international parties, will succeed in achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace that will ensure the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people in establishing their own independent State with Jerusalem as its capital. The negotiations and contact between the parties to the peace process have proved that Jerusalem is the key to peace, because of its distinguished status for Arabs and Muslims. Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian territories occupied since 1967 is an important element in achieving a comprehensive, just and durable peace.

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The Co-Chairperson (Finland): The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Amraiya Naidu, Chairman of the delegation of Fiji.

Mr. Naidu (Fiji): …

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My small country has contributed troops and civilian police to United Nations peacekeeping missions for over two decades and has in the process paid the ultimate price of the loss of 35 lives in the maintenance of peace. We have had a presence in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon since that Mission began, and we continue to have a contingent there. Our civilian police are serving in Bosnia and Kosovo. Military observers are in the Iraq-Kuwait Mission, and more recently our troops have been sent to East Timor. Our soldiers in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) are serving with troops from Ireland and New Zealand in Suwai in East Timor, which borders West Timor. We know the area since Wednesday has been far from calm.

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The Co-Chairperson (Finland): The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Esmat Abdel Meguid, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.

Mr. Meguid (League of Arab States) (spoke in Arabic): /…

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Throughout its history, the United Nations has achieved enormous successes, including the settlement of various conflicts throughout the world and resolutions adopted to try to resolve the Middle East problem and to restore peace to the region, such as Security Council resolutions 181 (II) of 1947, 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 425 (1978) and others.

We believe that the faithful, total implementation of these resolutions is the way to realize just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. This will be brought about through total Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, enabling the Palestinian people to return to their homes, to regain their legitimate rights and to establish their own independent State, with Jerusalem as its capital. It will be brought about by Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan to the lines of 4 June 1967 and by dealing with the effects of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, including the release of Lebanese detainees from Israeli prisons. Israel should also pay compensation for damages done as a result of its occupation of Arab lands.

I would like to pay tribute to the constructive role played by the United Nations in its supervision of the implementation of Security Council resolution 425 (1978), regarding Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon. We reaffirm the Arab position, which calls for disarmament in the region, particularly nuclear disarmament, to make the Middle East a nuclear-weapon-free zone and a region free of all weapons of mass destruction.

The United Nations is the international forum for international legitimacy where efforts are made at regional and world levels to achieve the aspirations of the whole of humankind. The Arab League, which is the expression of Arab aspirations and legitimacy, is keen to solidify and strengthen its links with the United Nations.

In conclusion, I hope that this historic Summit is successful and that it will lead to a future vision and better future for humanity. We also hope that Member States will renew their total commitment to the implementation of the Organization’s resolutions and the Charter’s provisions.

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The Co-Chairperson (Finland): The Assembly will now hear an address by His Excellency Mr. Azeddine Laraki, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Mr. Laraki (Organization of the Islamic Conference) (spoke in Arabic): …

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To attain that goal, it is imperative, indeed, essential, for an environment of freedom and justice to prevail for all peoples and nations of the world. Every human being deserves to breathe the air of freedom and to be empowered to exercise his or her role in constructive developmental undertakings for the benefit of society as a whole.

This also calls for the end of foreign occupation, and the exercise of the right of self-determination, wherever people remain deprived of it — I refer particularly to the rights of self-determination of the peoples of Palestine and of Kashmir. As long as they, and any others in a similar situation, remain in bondage, humankind as a whole remains in a state of shame. It is incumbent upon the United Nations to help redeem those members of human society from their long-lasting predicaments so that they may regain their dignity and self-respect and join forces with the rest of us as free and equal partners in the developmental tasks that lie ahead.

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Closure of the Summit

The Co-Chairperson (Namibia): I declare closed the Millennium Summit of the United Nations.

The meeting rose at 8 p.m.