UNITED NATIONS, 16 September 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday called for reforms in the United Nations in order for the world body to play a more effective role in maintaining peace and stability across the globe. It also demanded restrictions on the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and joint global efforts to combat terrorism.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, also urged developed countries to open their markets to developing countries. “They should also facilitate accession of other countries, including my country, to the World Trade Organization (WTO), offering adequate flexibility considering their situations,” he said.
“The Kingdom appreciates the vital role of UN bodies and expects that the current efforts to reform the United Nations would strengthen these bodies and increase their vitality. We also support an international consensus on the expansion of the Security Council and restriction of its veto power. It should not be allowed veto resolutions related to implementing its previous decisions,” he said.
Prince Sultan also called for the restoration of the powers of the UN General Assembly. “Everybody must adhere to the UN Charter to achieve peace and stability and there should not be double standard while adopting resolutions,” he said. He stressed the need to make the Middle East and the Gulf free of weapons of mass destruction.
In his address, Prince Sultan urged the international community to work for realizing the Palestinians’ dream of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. “Arab countries have expressed their commitment to a just peace by endorsing the peace plan proposed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah,” he said. “Respecting international resolutions is the best way to settle global conflicts,” he pointed out.
Arab News received a copy of Prince Sultan’s address to the General Assembly.
Prince Sultan called on Iraqis to overcome their differences in order to achieve their common objectives. “We are now in need of an effective United Nations more than ever, a UN which can carry out its mission of realizing global peace and stability and sustainable global growth, ensuring human rights and respecting the distinguished features of various societies and cultures.”
The crown prince emphasized the Kingdom’s efforts for manpower development, saying the government allocated a substantial part of its budget for the purpose. He said the Kingdom had given four percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on foreign aid annually, adding that 83 countries had benefited from its financial assistance. Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries extending foreign aid, he said.
He said the Kingdom had contributed more than $24 billion to the capital of several development organizations around the world, especially in Arab and Islamic countries. “Saudi Arabia stands second after the US in foreign remittances of expatriate workers,” he said, adding that these remittances are an important source of foreign currencies and financial resources for many countries.
“We have also written off foreign debts worth $6 billion owed by many poor countries and given debt remission to other countries,” the prince said and urged developed countries to fulfill their pledges by allocating 0.7 percent of their national revenues for development aid. He called for innovative sources to finance development projects.
Referring to terrorism, Prince Sultan said: “Saudi Arabia has suffered a lot from terrorism and confronted it with its force, inspired by the teachings of the Islamic faith. Islam is a religion of peace and security and encourages cooperation between peoples. It prohibits aggression against human beings.”
Saudi Arabia hosted an international counterterrorism conference in Riyadh last February, which supported a proposal made by King Abdullah to establish an international anti-terror center, Prince Sultan said and hoped the General Assembly would approve the proposal to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against terrorism. He urged the General Assembly to set up a working team to study the resolutions of the Riyadh conference.
Uniting their fight against international terrorism, leaders of fifty countries — including the five Security Council permanent members — signed the UN Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.
US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed the convention on Wednesday.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin also signed the convention. French President Jacques Chirac was unable to attend the summit for health reasons.
Also yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the summit that the next move in the Middle East peace process was up to the Palestinians after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Sharon, who enjoyed a warm reception at the summit because of the pullout, acknowledged the Palestinians’ right to a state of their own. But at the same time, he reasserted Israel’s claims to disputed Jerusalem as its “eternal and united capital.”
Palestinians see the eastern sector of the city as a capital of a future state, and the competing claims have made Jerusalem one of the most contentious issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Now it is the Palestinians turn to prove their desire for peace,” Sharon said. “The most important test the Palestinian leaders will face is in fulfilling their commitment to putting an end to terror and its infrastructures, eliminate the anarchic regime of armed gangs and cease the incitement and indoctrination of hatred toward Israel and the Jews.”
In response, Palestinians said the only solution was a complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories including the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. “The problem can only be solved be ending the occupation that began in 1967,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
