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

Official Records

General Assembly

Fifty-seventh session

32nd plenary meeting

Wednesday, 16 October 2002, 3 p.m.

New York

    In the absence of the President, Miss Clarke (Barbados), Vice-President, took the Chair.

   The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

Agenda items 11 and 40 ( continued)

Report of the Security Council (A/57/2 and A/57/2/Corr.1)

Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters: report of the Open-ended Working Group

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 Mr. Murargy (Mozambique): …

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  The report of the Security Council clearly shows the successes and failures registered in the reporting period. The Council has proven its effectiveness with regard to the question of terrorism through the outstanding work being carried out by the Counter-Terrorism Committee, under the leadership of Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the United Kingdom. The Security Council has also been successful in East Timor, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. However, the Council has been less effective in Africa and in the Middle East, despite the fact that it has spent most of its time debating conflicts in those regions.

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  Mr. Fonseca (Brazil): …

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  In the Middle East, the adoption of four consecutive resolutions by the Security Council was not forceful enough to cause any palpable change in the situation. The challenge here is how to really assert the collective responsibility that falls on the United Nations, and in particular on the Security Council, in resuming the peace process and establishing a viable path to restore hope and security for all peoples in the region.

  While we support the efforts by the Quartet and the initiatives by the leaders of the region, it is our view that the Security Council can and must do more.

  It should actively pursue the resumption of a political process engaging all parties in the region. It should consider the possibility of a monitoring presence on the ground to help implement the agreements reached between the parties and ensure adequate protection of civilians in the occupied territories. The Council should also take a more determined approach and resort to all mechanisms within its purview to ensure implementation of decisions adopted.

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

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  The United Arab Emirates is greatly disappointed at the Security Council’s failure to ensure the implementation of its resolutions related to the situation in the Middle East, particularly the Palestinian question. The Palestinian people are being subjected daily to killings and genocide by the Israeli occupying forces, without any intervention by the Council to compel Israel, the occupying Power, to comply with all previous Council resolutions related to the Palestinian question. Israel continues to carry out massacres against innocent civilians and to damage the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, violating all international laws and human rights instruments, foremost among which is the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. However, the Council is doing nothing to force Israel to comply with its resolutions, the most recent of which was resolution 1435 (2002). Israel has publicly defied that resolution, despite the demand by all Council members that it be implemented. The Council has been unable to impose its authority on Israel, so it has resorted to changing and sometimes cancelling its resolutions, as was the case with Council resolution 1405 (2002), related to sending a fact-finding team to Jenin, in the occupied Palestinian territories.

  In that context, we demand that the Security Council, as the principal body responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, shoulder its responsibilities in that regard and use its authority to ensure the full implementation of all its resolutions, in particular those related to the situation in the Middle East and to the Palestinian question. The goal would be to maintain international peace and security and to put an end to the shedding of the blood of innocent civilians, in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention and with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

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 Mr. Gansukh (Mongolia): …

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  The year under review, as indicated in the report, was the busiest in the history of Security Council. Along with its new responsibilities following from the adoption of resolution 1373 (2001), the Council was fully committed to the establishment of an Interim Authority in Afghanistan, providing security in Kabul and its surrounding areas. The United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor, under the Council’s mandate, helped in establishing an independent State of East Timor. The Security Council was engaged in peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building activities from the horn of Africa to the Great Lakes region. Many other important issues related to the Middle East, Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, counter-terrorism and peacekeeping, among others, were discussed by the Council or kept under its constant review.

  The deterioration of the overall situation in the Middle East is still a major cause of concern. However, even in that region, a foundation has been laid down for achieving lasting peace within the framework of relevant Security Council resolutions. Though peace in many parts of Africa remains fragile, signs of national reconciliation and political will to achieve the peaceful settlement of the disputes are evident.

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 Ms. Murnaghan (Ireland): …

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  We welcome in particular the fact that the Council has increasingly, for the first time in perhaps many years, substantively, and in a sustained way addressed the situation in the Middle East. We strongly supported the introduction earlier this year of regular monthly briefings but believe there is a need to redouble efforts to attain the goals agreed by the Council and to achieve full implementation of Council resolutions.

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 The meeting rose at 5.55 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.