Statement
by
H. E. Dr. M. Javad Zarif
Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
before
the Security Council
on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question
New York- October 4, 2004
Mr. President,
Let me begin by congratulating
you for assuming the presidency of the Council this month and thank you for
having convened this public meeting on the grave situation in the occupied
Palestinian territory. I, also avail myself of this opportunity to express my
appreciation to the Ambassador of Spain for his able and effective conduct of
the work of the Security Council in the month of September.
Mr. President,
Once more, the Council is convened to debate yet
another in a series of repeated heinous crimes perpetrated by Israel against
the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory. Recent military operations
against civilians in the Gaza Strip and the brutal killing of Palestinian children
and women in refugee camps are nothing but acts of war crime committed by Israel in
defiance of basic rules of international law. Indeed, Israel’s
illegal acts of aggression and oppression against the Palestinian people are deliberate
attempts to preclude and torpedo any possibility to bring peace to a region which
has been engulfed in a whirlpool of tensions and conflicts for so many decades.
The systematic and unabated Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people have
in fact deteriorated the already dire and grave situation in the occupied Palestinian
territory. The recent Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip would undoubtedly create
more instability and serve to inflame tension and threaten to further
destabilize the situation in the region.
Mr. President,
The
impunity with which Israel
has been allowed to carry out its war crimes has undoubtedly emboldened it to
continue. Accordingly, in defiance of international law, UN resolutions
and even basic norms of decency, Israel has intensified its atrocities
against the oppressed and defenseless Palestinian people. Collective punishments,
house demolitions, land confiscations, indiscriminate extrajudicial killings
and targeted assassination
of Palestinian resistance leaders, are but a few examples of daily acts
of terrorism committed against the Palestinian people.
It is a
high time that the legitimate struggle of the oppressed people of Palestine for regaining
their most basic rights be adequately and effectively supported by the
international community in its totality. We believe that an end to the Israeli occupation
and formation of a Palestinian state, with the Qods-al-Sharif as its capital,
and the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland is the only
solution to the enduring Palestinian crisis.
While strongly condemning the latest
Israeli criminal acts in the Gaza Strip, we believe that it is imperative for
the international community to heavily weigh in and unambiguously prevent
Israel from carrying out its nefarious designs against Palestinians. This
Council, especially, shoulders the heaviest responsibility and should act with
a view to preventing Israel
from continuing to flout the will of the international community, incorporated
in numerous UN resolutions.
We hope that all members of the
Council recognize the need for taking decisive action in the face of this new escalation
in the region and do not choose to allow further paralysis of the Council and
erosion of its authority as a result of failing to address the grave situation
created in the wake of the recent Israeli atrocities.
Thank you, Mr. President