Mideast peace process – GCC communique – Letter from Oman(excerpts)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Fifty-first session Fifty-first year

Items 33, 35, 53 and 56 of the

  preliminary list*

THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

CONSEQUENCES OF THE IRAQI OCCUPATION OF

  AND AGGRESSION AGAINST KUWAIT

THE SITUATION IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Letter dated 3 April 1996 from the Permanent Representative of

Oman to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to transmit herewith the press communiqué issued by the Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council at its fifty-eighth session, held at Riyadh on 16 and 17 March 1996 under the chairmanship of Mr. Yousef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under items 33, 35, 53 and 56 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Salim Bin Mohammed AL-KHUSSAIBY

     Ambassador

  Permanent Representative   

________________________

* A/51/50.

96-09989 (E)   230496  230496/…

ANNEX

Press Communiqué issued on 17 March 1996 by the Ministerial

Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council

The Ministerial Council held its fifty-eighth session on Saturday and Sunday 27 and 28 Shawwal 1416 (16-17 March 1996) at the headquarters of the Secretariat General in Riyadh, under the chairmanship of His Excellency Mr. Yousef Bin Al-Alawi Bin Abdullah, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman.  The session was attended by:

His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Minister of State for Foreign

  Bin Zayed Al Nahyan   Affairs of the United Arab

  Emirates

His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Minister for Foreign Affairs

  Bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa   of Bahrain

His Royal Highness Prince Sa'ud Minister for Foreign Affairs of

  Al-Faysal   the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Minister for Foreign Affairs of

  Bin Jabr Al-Thani   Qatar

His Excellency Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad First Deputy Prime Minister and

  Al-Jaber Al-Sabah   Minister for Foreign Affairs of

  Kuwait

………..

The Ministerial Council discussed developments in the Middle East peace process.  Based on the consistent positions of the States members of the Council in support of the peace process in the Middle East and with a view to arriving at a just, comprehensive and durable peace in the region founded on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and the principle of land for peace, the Council expressed its great appreciation of the international efforts made in that direction, especially those made by the United States of America in encouraging the parties concerned to make the desired progress on a bilateral basis.

The Council, in expressing its satisfaction at the holding of Palestinian legislative and presidential elections and the completion by the Israeli army of its redeployment away from most of the cities and villages of the West Bank in keeping with the second phase of the Palestinian Self-Government Arrangements, appeals to Israel to end the blockade imposed on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; to implement the letter and the spirit of the bilateral agreements with the Palestinian side; to refrain from any practices incompatible with the trend towards peace in the region; and to begin the final-phase negotiations on a basis of total Israeli withdrawal from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, so as to enable the Palestinian people to exercise all its lawful rights, including that of establishing an independent State on its native soil.

The Council also expresses the hope that efforts will be redoubled, especially those of the United States of America, to surmount the obstacles that stand in the way of Syrian-Israeli negotiations, and affirms its full support for the Syrian position calling for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Arab Golan to the line of 4 June 1967.  The Council also expresses its hope that progress will be achieved in Lebanese-Israeli relations, leading to the end of the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, in accordance with Security Council resolution 425 (1978).

The Council expressed its profound appreciation of the efforts made by the Arab Republic of Egypt, headed by President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, to ensure the success of the Sharm al-Sheikh Summit for Peacemakers, and highlighted the significance of its positive outcome.  It also renewed its full support for those efforts, appealing to all peace-loving States for constructive cooperation with a view to the formulation and implementation of effective practical measures which would help to promote and strengthen the Middle East peace process, safeguard its achievements and accomplishments and thwart any attempts to undermine them or prejudice the security and stability of the region and its future economic development.

The Council called upon the sponsors of the Summit to resume the Madrid Peace Conference on the Middle East with the aim of assessing the outcome of the peace process and of imparting to that process a powerful impetus that would help it to achieve its desired aims.

The Ministerial Council affirms the fact that extremism, violence and terrorism are global phenomena that are not restricted to a particular people or region.  It renews its loathing and condemnation of such phenomena and its categorical rejection of all forms of violence and terrorism, particularly those which are detrimental to security and stability in the region or which impede the peace process in the Middle East, and calls upon the international community to coordinate its efforts to stop acts of violence and terrorism, ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice, and prevent extremist and terrorist elements from using the territory of any State for purposes of obtaining funding or arms supplies and from availing themselves of the media to incite acts of violence and terrorism.