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In the name of God,
The most Compassionate, The most Merciful.
At the outset, I would like to congratulate you on your election as president for the 62nd Session of the U.N. General Assembly, and wish you all success in your mission. I would also like to thank your predecessor, H.E. Sheikha Haya Bint Rashed Al-Khalifa for her presidency of the previous session.
I would also like to greet H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary-General who is assuming his tasks at a critical stage where the Organization faces many serious challenges threatening world peace and security.
Mr. President,
This Session is convened while more than the fifth of the world population, the Muslims, are observing the obligatory fasting of the month of Ramadan. We have been keen on participating in the activities of this session which is held in this holy month to confirm our conviction of the importance of contributing to enhancing co-existence between nations and to put forward an important question relating to the objectives of the international community concerned with the future of peace and progress.
Mr. President,
I would like to refer to the recent Security Council Resolution No. 1770, adopted on the 10th of last August on Iraq, because of its great importance as it restored to the United Nations part of its rightful role in tackling the tragedy of Iraq, after it has been proved that it cannot possibly remain in the hands of one state or an alliance of a number of countries of similar interests.
The major conflicts in the world have become too big to be handled by a single power. They should be assigned to the United Nations, being the political embodiment of the principles of the international community, its laws and broad aspirations for establishing peace and progress based on the power of law and the will of those believing in its rulings.
However, if the role of the United Nations is meant to be more effective, its structure must be reformed to be compatible with the changes that took place in the world since its Charter was adopted in 1945.
Though the current situation in Iraq requires that the international community should assume its responsibilities, the main responsibility lies with all Iraqi leaderships because they are the ones mainly responsible for finding a formula of national reconciliation that guarantees justice, peace and security and safeguards the sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iraq.
Mr. President,
The world order has witnessed cold and hot wars. While the hot wars are humanly unacceptable, the cold wars are psychologically unbearable because that will inevitably and consequently lead to conflicts in the dark that are totally incompatible with the nature of a world in which the forces of enlightenment and the elements and means of understanding between nations and cultures have emerged in an unprecedented manner in the history of humanity.
Mr. President,
The United Nations activities in the fields of development should be accorded priority status due to the close relation between development, security and peace.
We have been pleased with the approval of the United Nations General Assembly of the State of Qatar's initiative to hold the first follow-up meeting of the International Conference on Development Funding in Doha in the second half of 2008.
Mr. President,
One of the great challenges we all have to address is related to environment conservation due to its exposure to deterioration and pollution which threaten human life and all living organisms, in addition to the destructive impact of climate change, which requires our cooperation and joint action to put forward new conceptions that provide effective solutions on the short, medium and long terms to which the industrial and developing countries jointly contribute.
I would like to stress my country’s stand in support of all measures that protect the environment and realize sustainable development.
Mr. President,
International aid is one of the main channels to promote international partnership. This calls for increasing its volume and improving its efficiency by easing the terms of granting it, and making it serve the national development strategies of the recipient countries.
In this connection, we have concerns about the decline of the real value of official development aid in 2006. Therefore, the donors should exert more effort to multiply the aid offered to the sub- Sahara African countries, and to accelerate the advancement of the UN development agenda.
On the other hand, due to the major and important role of world trade in funding development, the successful conclusion of the Doha Round will provide new opportunities to promote multilateral trade exchange.
Despite our concerns about the deadlock in the current consultations on activation of the Doha Development Agenda, we hope this stage would be surpassed and all parties concerned, particularly the developed countries, would show enough flexibility in order to reach practical results that would benefit all.
Mr. President,
I have not come to this Session to bring up issues or crises relating to my country or the Arab world, though some of those problems are of tragic human dimensions, but to bring up what is broader, convinced that all Arab and Muslim issues are tied to the problems of the whole world. In the light of a global understanding of the new stage of international progress where conviction in the resort to the collective international will as represented by the United Nations, its leadership, its system and the set of principles on which its Charter is based, the Arab and Muslim causes will not be the only beneficiary, but the whole world would benefit from that, since just causes are always protected by the principles of law, which is their assured guarantee and powerful support.
Thank you all, and May the Peace, Mercy and Blessings of God be upon you.
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
