Mr. KHADDAM (Syrian Arab Republic) (interpretation from Arabic):’ It gives me pleasure to congratulate Mr. Hollai on his unanimous election as President of the thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly and to wish him success in his noble mission.
I am confident that his ability, experience and wisdom will lead to the desired success of our work at this session.
My country’s delegation will do its utmost to co-operate with him towards that end, especially since the development of cordial relations between our two countries will render our co-operation closer and more comprehensive.
I wish to laud the achievement of the outgoing President, Mr. Ismat Kittani during whose tenure the General Assembly held several special and emergency special session, in addition to the regular thirty-sixth session. Mr. Kittani conducted the work of the various sessions in an efficient manner that is worthy of our full appreciation and praise.
I also laud the Secretary-General, during whose term of office we hope that the Organization will take longer strides towards the attainment of its purposes and objectives.
The present session is being held at a time when our incarnational community is facing extremely difficult circumstances.
Danger is threatening around every corner.
Hotbeds of tension and acts of violence and aggression are intensifying and expanding, in the Middle East in particular, but also in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
All these situations pose a major threat to international peace and security.
There is no doubt that the imperialist camp is directly responsible for the intensification of tension and aggression in and against those continents.
It wants to use those countries as a testing ground for its lethal arms so that those countries will remain helpless, the victims of ruin and destruction.
By the same token, their peoples will remain backward and unable to catch up with the achievements of civi1ization.
The imperialists wish to keep a vast domain at their disposal for exploitation, both political and economic.
Needless to say, neo-colonialism has perfected its methods and techniques in this field.
The imperialist camp is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on arsenals of war anti destruction.
This is at a time when 600 million human beings on our planet are suffering from malnutrition, when1.5 billion people are without shelter or are living in tragic circumstances, and when more than one quarter of the world’s children are deprived of education and proper nutrition.
It would have been far better for those many billions spent on menacing humanity with a horrible world massacre to have been spent on meeting the needs of the poor countries and raising the living standards of their peoples.
Most of the statements delivered at the second special session on disarmament last June portrayed a tragic picture of today world.
They urgently and sincerely drew attention to the dangers facing humanity because of the uncontrollable armaments problem.
They also pointed to the gloomy fate awaiting all mankind.
They expressed the desire of the nonnuclear countries-which constitute the great majority Of the world community to protect themselves against The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
They called for the banning of nuclear tests and for a halt to the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons and the destruction of the’ present stockpiles.
They advocated the establishment of zones of peace, as well as nuclear-free zones in the Middle East, Africa, South-East Asia and other parts of the world.
None the less, despite all these sincere and continuing calls and appeals, we are in fact witnessing the transfer to the aggressor countries of the most sophisticated equipment of aggression.
We can see that internationally banned weapons are being used.
The world has recently witnessed tens of thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese citizens-mostly children, women and elderly people falling victim to cluster bombs, vacuum bombs and nerve gases made in the United States of America, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its capital, Beirut.
Domination, exploitation, the plundering of national resources, persecution, aggression and the protection of the aggressor have become the rules guiding the conduct of imperialist, racist and Zionist forces in international relations.
Most States Members of the United Nations and the world public have declared that international peace and security cannot be realized and stabilized until the principles of the Charter and international law replace the law of the jungle, and unless injustice, persecution and oppression are eliminated and all forms of racism, including Zionism, are uprooted, unless peoples regain their usurped rights, and unless colonialism, neocolonialism, domination, hegemony and the plundering of the peoples national resources are eradicated root and branch.
We thus consider that the international community must strive to realize the following objectives if we want to attain a better world, free from the tragedies and woes of war.
First, colonialism and neo-colonialism and all forms of racism and racial discrimination must be eliminated.
Secondly, in relations among countries, sovereignty and the rule of international law and the principles of right, justice and equity, including respect for the principle of the peoples’ right to self-determination, must be consolidated.
This would eliminate hegemony, oppression and aggression and remove the immediate and secondary causes of international crises and problems.
Thirdly, the United Nations mast be strengthened so as to prevent it from becoming immobilized and so as to affirm the credibility and effectiveness of its resolutions and enhance its capabilities to address and solve various issues, guided by the Charter and the principles for which it was created.
Fourthly, the specter of the cold war and of international tension must be banished and the mad race in both conventional and nuclear weapons halted, and we must persist in our efforts to ban the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.
Fifthly, an economic world order based on the relevant General Assembly resolution must be established in order to bridge the great gap and remove the major discrepancies between the advanced and developing countries and to create a greater balance in relations between the developed countries and third world countries.
A review of the current international situation shows very clearly the great distance separating the present status of international affairs from the status we desire and hope for.
We notice, rather, that problems are increasing and being further complicated and that sources of tension in the world are being dangerously aggravated and becoming a serious threat to international peace and security.
The racist regime in Pretoria, like the racist Zionist regime in Palestine, has not only detonated explosive situations of conflict and tension, but its practices have always been an affront to humanity and a blot on its history
The peoples of South Africa and Namibia are still being made to labor under the yoke of injustice and colonialism by the racist minority regime.
The Organization must take a firm stand in confronting the conspiracies and manipulations of the imperialist forces, in order to save those peoples from their enslavers and oppressors by supporting and backing their national liberation movements and by extending to them effective material aid in their struggle for their rights to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty and in order to deter that racist regime from persisting in its acts of aggression against neighboring countries, particularly Angola. We appeal to the Security Council to take the measures provided for in the Charter in order to put ail end to this regime and to its practices and acts of aggression.
The Assembly is still considering an item on the situation in Afghanistan arid its consequences for international peace and security. It is our opinion that the Afghan Government has the right to defend the independence of Afghanistan against all types of outside intervention in its internal affairs.
We have close historical and cultural relations with Afghanistan; moreover it is a member of the non-aligned movement, and we are keen that it should always remain so.
The Afghan people are fully entitled to choose their own system of government.
We therefore attach great importance to the conducting of negotiations between the Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and its neighbors in order to achieve peaceful solutions that would guarantee the security and stability of that region and preserve the unity, independence and non-alignment of Afghanistan.
The question of Cyprus is at a standstill to this very day despite the number of years that have passed since it first arose.
We sincerely hope that negotiations between the two Cypriot communities will resume under the auspices of the Secretary-General, in accordance with United Nations resolutions, on the basis of respect for the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, unity and non-alignment of Cyprus.
The problem of the unification of Korea is still unsolved, despite the new initiative and proposals submitted by the Government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.
We support the unification of Korea on the just and practical bases suggested by the Pyong Yang Government.
Sad and regrettable war took place in the South Atlantic.
The question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) awaits discussion during this session of the General Assembly.
We call for the resumption of negotiation between the two parties concerned, namely, Argentina and the United Kingdom, under the auspices of the United Nations, in order to find a peaceful settlement based on the relevant United Nations resolutions and the principles of the Charter.
The efforts of the Secretary-General in this respect are both necessary and desirable in order to facilitate the realization of the desired peaceful settlement.
The dangerous and tragic situation in the Middle East clearly reflects the disruption which the international community has undergone as a result of the constant Israeli aggression.
The tragedy of the Palestinian people and the whole Middle East region dates back to the establishment of Israel on the soil of Palestine.
Much suffering and bleeding continue as a result of the plots of world Zionism to establish a racist empire starting in Palestine and extending to other parts of the Arab world, defined by the Zionist doctrine as being from the Nile to the Euphrates, an empire that would dominate the Middle East and control the international situation through such hegemony, because of the strategic and economic importance of the Middle East, which is the meeting point for three continents in the heart of the Old World, adjacent to the strategic interests of the great Powers, in addition to the known huge energy reserves and revenues of this region.
The Zionist peril, with its racialist nature and expansionist aims, is not confined to the Arab world.
It has, rather, become a growing immediate danger jeopardizing the security and interests of all the peoples of the world.
World Zionism is plotting to become, through its control of the region and its natural resources energy ranking foremost a force controlling this basic commodity and forcing the world to deal with the region through it.
This explains the aggressive attitude of world Zionism and its base, Israel, built on a permanent callous contempt of the nations, organizations and international institutions of the world.
From the beginning of this year, Israel has refused to implement the following Security Council resolutions: 497 (1981), and resolutions 508 (1982), 509 (1982), 511 (1982) to 513 (1982) and 515 (1982) to 521 (1982). It has also refused to abide by the resolutions of the General Assembly passed at its special emergency sessions this year. Mi this should be added to the long list of United Nations and other international resolutions.
The Arab Palestinian people have paid a very dear price for the scandalous collusion between British imperialism in Palestine and world Zionism, which led to opening the gates of Palestine for Jewish immigration and facilitating the establishment of Israel at the expense of the Arab Palestinian people and their homeland.
The Palestinians are still being forced to continue to pay the price in the form of expulsion and mass murder.
They still suffer from homelessness, deprived of their lands and their homes.
They still aspire, with great yearning and determination, to the restoration of the homeland which has been usurped and the rights which have been violated.
The Arabs have paid very dearly for the collusion between world Zionism and the Western countries, which have renounced all their commitments towards the Arabs and supported the establishment of the Hebrew State, extending to it all means of aggression.
In 1948 the Israelis introduced the slogan of “negotiating peace with the Arabs” and under this false pretext occupied the demilitarized zone, which was under Arab control and supervision. In 1967, under the motto of “security”, the Israelis launched the June aggression and then began to build settlements in the newly occupied Arab territories.
Now they demand security for these settlements, built on the occupied Arab lands, contrary to international instruments, the principles of international law and United Nations resolutions.
Israel has refused to implement all international resolutions calling for its withdrawal from the Arab lands that it occupied in 1967, and it has rejected all peace initiatives, including the American initiatives.
It rejected and foiled both the Jarring and Rogers initiatives.
All international efforts to determine the borders of the State of Israel have failed.
A number of Israeli leaders have introduced an insolent, dangerous and arrogant definition of borders, unprecedented in history, by declaring that Israel’s borders stretch to wherever the Israeli soldier can reach.
Such a definition simply means continued aggression and constant expansion until the dreams of world Zionism are achieved by the establishment of the Zionist empire in the Arab world.
In a notorious statement, reminiscent of the Nazi concepts which were denounced by all mankind, the Israeli Minister of Defense states that he believes that Israel’s lebensraum will stretch to include Pakistan in the east and North African countries in the west.
On 14 December 1981 Israel’s Knesset enacted a “law” annexing the Syrian Golan Heights.
This annexation was rejected by the Security Council in its resolution 497 (1981) and by the General Assembly in resolution ES-9/1 of 5 February 1982 at its ninth emergency special session.
During this year Israel’s threats against the Arab countries and Palestinian people have escalated.
Israel has continued to pursue its aggressive policy by bombarding Lebanon’s towns and villages, and the whole world knows about the savagery of Israel’s shelling of Beirut, which killed hundreds of innocent victims.
On 4 June Israel’s army launched an all-out attack on Lebanon, preceded by air and sea raids on various Lebanese areas.
Despite Security Council resolutions 50s (1982) and 509 (1982), the Israeli invaders continued their advance till they besieged Beirut and unleashed on it an inferno of bombs from the air, land and sea in a way unprecedented in the history of war.
In one day the Lebanese capital was hit by over 250,000 Israeli bombs and rockets, as reported by the world news agencies at the time.
In this wat, the Israelis killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians-women, children and elderly people.
They also displaced hundreds of thousands and destroyed villages, towns and civilian installations.
Even hospitals and places of worship were not spared.
They used internationally banned weapons.
And all this came under the title of “Peace for Galilee”.
A survey of Israeli decisions, together with the statements of Israeli leaders, shows us that the aggression on Lebanon had the following objectives:
first, to liquidate the PLO and displace the Palestinians anew;
secondly, to control Lebanon through what they call the establishment of a strong Government, as if any Government installed by foreign occupation can ever be “strong”;
thirdly, to impose a “peace treaty” on the State of Lebanon;
fourthly, to usurp parts of Lebanon-witness Israel’s current measures in the occupied Lebanese territory, where attempts are under way to plunder the waters of the Litany river and to create a new settlement;
fifthly, to deal a military blow to Syria, and weaken it in order to weaken Arab resistance to Israeli aggression, since Syria is the base and pivot of this resistance.
To realize those aims, Israel began its invasion of Lebanon, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese were massacred and towns and villages were destroyed. To realize those aims, Israel’s forces entered Beirut, in spite of an agreement arranged by President Reagan’s envoy, Mr. Philip Habib, in spite of the United States guarantees that the Israeli forces, after the implementation of the agreement, would never enter Beirut, and although we were repeatedly informed that the Israeli forces would start withdrawing from around Beirut as a first step towards complete withdrawal.
Then came the horrible massacre perpetrated by the Israeli forces of occupation in the refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and other localities.
Israeli forces beat, burned and massacred more than 1,400 innocent Palestinian citizens, mostly women and children, in a bloodbath reminiscent of the massacre of Deir Yassin, perpetrated by Begin on 9 April 1947.
This horrible carnage, which exceeds all the crimes of Nazism, confirms that a genocidal war of extermination is being waged by Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese people before the very eyes of the whole world.
The storming of Beirut and the horrible massacre committed there despite the aforementioned agreement, and despite American pledges, calls into question the value and credibility of the guarantees given by a super-Power like the United States of America.
It also casts grave doubts on the validity of such guarantees whenever Israel is involved in a problem.
The practices of the leaders of Israel show that they are indeed a terrorist gang that has not learned the lessons of history.
They have not learned from past records, nor do they wish to understand the present or future. Crime has blotted out their vision, and racism has completely blurred their perception of the present and the future.
Those leaders must realize that the Arab masses, which throughout history halve gone into battle for their cause and their dignity, will not be cowed by Israeli terrorism or by the crimes of the Israeli leaders.
They must realize that sooner or later they will pay a high price for the hideous crimes they have committed and commit still, and that a just punishment will be inflicted sooner or later.
Never in history has a tyrant escaped punishment.
The crimes the Israelis are committing against the Arab nations will only strengthen our determination to resist aggression and strengthen our commitment to our cause and to final victory.
We are aware that we have chosen the hard path, the path which is paved with suffering, blood and sacrifice.
But we shall pursue our march regardless of the immensity of the sacrifices and the difficulties.
We have no choice but to struggle to liberate our land and preserve the future of our nation.
Our road is long and agonizing, the road of freedom is always difficult and bloody, but it is the road to victory.
The international community has rejected the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and that invasion has been condemned by all nations and peoples of the world, individually and c1l11ectively. But is that enough, in the face of this perilous situation?
The countries which voted in favor of admitting Israel to membership of the Organization based their approval on the Israeli pledge that Israel would be a peace-loving State, committed to the Charter and the principles of the United Nations.
Are not Israel’s racist crimes, its barbarous acts of aggression, its invasion of Lebanon and the war of extermination it is waging against the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples enough to make those countries reconsider their attitude to that State, which was originally founded on aggression and which has grown and expanded through aggression?
Another question is directed specifically to the United States of America, since it supplies the aggressors with all the means of aggression, killing and destruction in the form of the most modem products of the American arsenal.
Are the Israelis committing these criminal acts to serve their racist Zionist interests or on behalf of the United States and its interests?
If Israel’s crimes against the Arabs are not committed on behalf of the United States or its interests, why does it provide this support and backing to Israel?
Why does it give Israel the most modern American aircraft and missiles, and reconnaissance, detection and jamming equipment? Why does it give Israel cluster bombs and chemical weapons, which are internationally prohibited?
Is this consistent with the responsibilities of the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council, under the Charter?
Is peace in the region and throughout the world achieved through wars, by killing tens of thousands, by rendering millions homeless and by destroying towns and villages?
The United States of America bears a special responsibility for all Israel’s crimes and acts of aggression against the Arabs.
Therefore, the United States should immediately withdraw its political and military protection from Israel and should pave the way for the international community to impose sanctions against that racist aggressor State, to end all types of assistance, including. military and economic aid, and to suspend the participation of Israel in the Organization.
Those who have not helped in the past to isolate Israel and impose sanctions against it are today required to translate their condemnation of the aggression into punishment of the aggressor.
The history of the First and Second World Wars proves that condoning aggression has always encouraged the commission of further aggression.
The lenient attitude towards the Nazis during the invasion of Austria and Czechoslovakia encouraged them to invade Poland, an act which led to the eruption of the Second World War.
Taking a lenient attitude towards the aggressor on the pretext of leaving the possibility open of persuading it to desist from its aggressive policies can lead only to more acts of aggression, more crimes and more disregard of the will of the international community.
No country in the world-either in the ancient or in the modem world-has a record as dark as Israel’s.
It is a record abounding in racist crimes, acts of aggression, wars and crimes against humanity.
Israel has thus exceeded all the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis and the Fascist forces during the first half of this century.
Recent history has not seen another aggressor like Israel, which has shelled houses with bombs of a type never before used in war, thereby killing countless innocent women, children and elderly people.
A look at the destroyed, burnt and bereaved city of Beirut is proof enough of the nature of Israel and of its aims.
In spite of all this the Israelis still claim that they want peace.
Is that any different from what the Nazis used to say when they were destroying towns and villages and killing the innocent population, including women and children?
Israelis claim they want peace; what they want is the peace of the grave.
Peace cannot be based on aggression, oppression, killing and destruction; nor can it be based on racist and aggressive doctrines.
The Arabs believe in the importance of establishing a just and lasting peace in the region.
They also understand the repercussions of events in the region on the interests and the future of the people of the world.
But they should not have to pay a price for their belief in peace, justice and right.
Despite all the tragedies suffered by the Arabs as a result of the aggressive presence of the Israelis in the region, and in spite of the wars waged by Israeli troops in Lebanon against the Arab nation, at the recent Twelfth Arab Summit Conference, held at Fez, a peace plan was announced based on the following principles:
first, complete Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied Arab territories;
secondly, recognition of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian Arab people, including their right to return, to self-determination and to establish their own independent State under the leadership of the PLO, their sole legitimate representative; and, thirdly, the formulation by the Security Council of the guarantees of peace.
The Security Council would guarantee the implementation 6fthese principles, which are based on two things:
the relevant United Nations resolutions and the Charter, and the Arabs’ conviction that peace is important and necessary for the international community.
In announcing these principles, which are recognized by the United Nations and by most countries of the world, the Arabs are well aware that Israel is seeking not peace based on right and justice, but rather to impose capitulation by force, aggression and oppression.
Today more than ever before we are confident that the Arabs will defeat the aggressor.
They will struggle by all means possible to recover their rights and resist aggression, for in doing this they will be defending not only their rights, interests and dignity, but those of all other nations as well.
The night of the aggressor shall not weaken our struggle against aggression; it will only strengthen and consolidate this struggle. We are confident that our Arab nation, despite its present state of affairs, will concert its efforts and potential to repel aggression and injustice and to fight humiliation and subjugation.
The States Members of the United Nations are required today to take a clear and specific stand to protect international peace and security and to safeguard the Charter. Such a stand requires a resolution that provides for, first, ceasing all kinds of dealings between the Members of the Organization and. Israel; secondly, asking the United States of America to stop all forms of military, economic and political assistance to Israel; thirdly, adopting a resolution abrogating General Assembly resolution273 (Ill) of 1949 under which Israel was admitted to United Nations membership; fourthly, extending all forms of assistance and backing to the Arab countries to resist and confront the aggression.
A resolution to that effect would not only repel the aggression but would consolidate the role of the Organization and prevent the threat to peace and security not only in the Middle East region but also throughout the world.
It is high time that the Organization adopted a practical position to face the series of Israeli acts of aggression; otherwise one would be skeptical about the usefulness of the Organization.
While asking all countries of the world to back up and support Arab rights, which are the victim of Israeli aggression, we renew our determination to continue the struggle by all means to defend our threatened existence and to restore our usurped rights, no matter how difficult, arduous and long our path may be.
Difficulties and hardships will never hinder or restrict the struggle of the people for their liberty and dignity.
