YouSaid · the spoken record

Naji Sabri

lines on the record: 45
first: 2001-09-24
most recent: 2002-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“What principles and what laws does the American President rely on in killing Iraqis, blockading their country, destroying their property and interfering in their internal affairs?””
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Yet we feel that the support we have extended has not been as great as we would have hoped, because of the circumstances which have curtailed our means. In extending this support, we act in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the resolutions of the Assembly, in which the national struggle of peoples against occupation and colonialism is considered to be an inalienable national right. “But what grounds does America and its Presidents have to support the Zionist entity, which has been occupying Palestine and other Arab territories and committing its criminal policy of killing Palestinians, destroying their property and encroaching upon, and destroying, the holy places of Muslims and Christians there?”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““Iraq has been keen to see the inspection issue discussed between the Security Council and Iraq, through the United Nations Secretary- General and the representatives of Iraq, with a view to reaching a balanced formula based on the principles of the Charter and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, and within a comprehensive solution which should bring to an end the cyclone of American accusations and fabricated crises against Iraq. At the same time, this would reassure Iraq with regard to its security, sovereignty, territorial integrity and its right to choose its own way without interference, in accordance with the rules established in the Charter of the United Nations. “The United States President said in his speech that Iraq is providing financial support to the Palestinian people. My comment is that this is 27 correct.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“The reason lies in the fact that the counter-obligations under relevant resolutions of the Security Council, including resolution 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991, contain a clear paragraph demanding that the Middle East be made a zone free from weapons of mass destruction. Thus the American Administration does not want to embarrass the Zionist entity or deprive it of the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons it actually possesses. It is also because the United States Administration is aware that Iraq has indeed honoured all its obligations and is demanding, along with other Arab countries, that paragraph 14 be applied to the Zionist entity.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Reciprocal obligations exist of which the Security Council has implemented nothing, including the obligation to respect Iraq's sovereignty, which is being violated by America and Britain on a daily basis through their ongoing aggression and the artificially drawn parallel latitude lines over northern and southern Iraq. “You may notice how the policy of the Zionist entity, which has usurped Palestine and other Arab territories since 1948, and afterwards, has now become as one with the policies and capabilities of the United States. “The United States Administration has been making up problems with Iraq in order to derail the application of paragraph 14 of resolution 687 (1991) and to prevent the Security Council from lifting the blockade imposed on Iraq.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Substantial amounts of our revenues have been illegitimately seized in a manner tantamount to looting and contrary to the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter. “We therefore call for a discussion of the issue of the inspection teams in accordance with international law. That should be done on a comprehensive basis with a discussion of Iraq's obligations, including the issue of the inspection teams as well as the obligations of the Security Council towards Iraq, as stated in the resolutions themselves, particularly resolution 687 (1991).”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““As what matters for us basically is that our rights, sovereignty and security be respected in accordance with international law, we have accepted the return of the inspection teams to Iraq, taking into consideration the arrangements that should safeguard these principles and achieve, with transparency, the goal of making sure that Iraq no longer possesses nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Along with you, we are waiting to see. “The blockade imposed upon Iraq has been in place for more than 12 years now, during which time our assets and oil revenues have been frozen and we have been unable to use them except through an inefficient United Nations-run system that has already proven to be unfeasible.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“If there are anyone amongst you who might still worry that the fabrications announced by American officials about Iraq may possibly be true, our country is ready to receive any scientific experts accompanied by politicians you choose to represent any one of your countries to tell us which places and scientific and industrial installations they would wish to see, particularly those about which the American officials have been fabricating false stories, alleging that they contain prohibited materials or activities. If such experts and politicians visit Iraq, we shall provide them with all the facilities they need to achieve their objective, that is, to see the true facts as they are.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Iraq rather calls on members of the Security Council, and on the United States Administration in particular, to respect their own obligations under the Charter, under international law and the relevant Security Council resolutions. Iraq demands that its inalienable rights, stipulated in those very resolutions, be met, including respect of its sovereignty and security, lifting the blockade imposed on it, and applying paragraph 14 of Resolution 687 (1991) to the Zionist entity, 26 as stipulated in the text and in the same manner as it was applied to Iraq. “I hereby declare before you that Iraq is totally clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““Briefly, what Iraq wants is the respect of the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law, whether regarding its own interests and sovereignty or those of the other Member States of the United Nations. On this basis, Iraq was, and still is, ready to cooperate with the Security Council and international organizations. However, Iraq rejects anyone's transgression of its rights, sovereignty, security and independence. That would be in contradiction with the principles of the Charter and international law. “Hence, Iraq has not rejected the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, even though those that relate to Iraq are unjust and at odds with the United Nations Charter and international law.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“In targeting Iraq, the United States Administration is acting on behalf of Zionism, which has been killing the heroic people of Palestine, destroying their property, murdering their children, and seeking to impose their domination on the whole world, not only militarily, but also economically and politically. “The United States Administration wants to destroy Iraq in order to control Middle East oil, and consequently control the politics as well as the oil and economic policies of the whole world. If it succeeds in that, God forbid, it would dictate for each country what it needs for its economic development, what quantities of oil it is allowed to buy, at what prices, along with other conditions.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“I quote: ‘The United States and other Powers exploited the inspection teams for their own political ends, including monitoring President Saddam Hussein's whereabouts.' He also said that the inspection teams deliberately created problems to prepare the ground for possible military attacks. “Iraq has always defended the principles and values that you have willingly set down in the United Nations Charter and the purposes for which the Security Council was created, which are to preserve security and to establish peace. Therefore, by confronting evil for twelve years now, Iraq has not only been defending its own patriotism, but rather it has acted as if it were defending your own patriotism. It has been acting on your behalf without being assigned to do so.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““Now that Iraq has accepted the return of the United Nations inspectors, we will all be able to see how they work. In our past experience with these inspectors (1991-1998), Iraq used to ask the inspection teams to do their job in accordance with the declared goals of the Security Council. However, some of the inspectors went on doing intelligence and espionage work that had nothing to do with the official mandate of the inspection teams. Some of those inspectors have publicly admitted this; some, including an American, are still publicly talking about it. Even Mr. Rolf Ekeus, the former chief of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), has recently stated that the inspectors overstepped the limits of their defined duties by spying on the Iraqi leadership.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““When the United States Administration realized that it was necessary to have an international cover for using force against Iraq and that the world did not believe the lies it tried to propagate to link Iraq to the September events, it changed the issue and began to shed crocodile tears about international law and the necessity to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy, alleging that Iraq is not complying with Security Council resolutions, especially with regard to the United Nations inspectors. This implied that Iraq had the intention to develop, or that it already possesses, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. According to these allegations, it might give such weapons to terrorist organizations that pose a threat to world security.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““So, after utilizing the American propaganda machine for a long time and spouting official statements full of lies, distortion, and falsehood, the focus was basically turned on 25 inciting the American public against Iraq and pushing it to believe the United States Administration's schemes of aggression as a fait accompli, as if it were the solution or the necessary rescue that would allow American citizens to live in security and stability, after what they had gone through in the 11 September events.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“He pretended to care for the people of Iraq after he and other Presidents before him have killed Iraqis by using weapons such as depleted uranium, and by the blockade, which is now more than twelve years old, in which more than one million and seven hundred thousand innocent Iraqis, out of a population of twenty five million citizens, have died.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Among his generalizations, which included deliberate insinuations, he presented extreme distortions of the so-called nuclear, biological and chemical threats, so as to make American citizens believe the deliberate insinuation that Iraq was linked to the American people's tragedy of 11 September. “He seems to have assumed that the countries of the world are unaware of the American Administration and its methods, or of Iraq and its high sense of responsibility toward humanity, its desire for peace and stability, or of the fact that the Iraqis are a creative people in work, production, and innovation, in addition to being the heirs of the most ancient human civilizations. “The United States President talked about the importance of the application of democracy on the part of the Government of Iraq.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
““It is a good sign that the United States resorted, for the first time since the end of the cold war, to the General Assembly to put forward one of its problems, after years of disregard of the weight, effect and opinion of others. Nevertheless, the United States President revealed his basic purpose when he jumped to the issue of Iraq without any introduction or acceptable progression. He portrayed that issue as if it were the most dangerous situation, not only for the life, security and future of the United States, but also for the life, future and security of the whole world.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“I was instructed by the President of the Republic of Iraq, His Excellency Mr. Saddam Hussein, to convey to you, in the allotted time, excerpts of a letter he has addressed to the General Assembly, in which His Excellency presents Iraq's position on the latest developments in the relationship between Iraq and the Security Council. Following are excerpts from the letter: “In his speech at the General Assembly that was preceded and accompanied by noisy propaganda and extensive preparation, the United States President, instead of paying attention to common issues of concern to humanity at large, has presented the security problems of his own country and the sacrifices it has suffered since the events of September 11.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“It gives me pleasure to express my sincere gratitude to the States of the international community and to organizations for their substantive position rejecting the United States Administration's threats against Iraq and for the calls they made for a comprehensive political solution to the impasse in the relationship between Iraq and the Security Council. In response to several appeals made by the United Nations Secretary-General, peace-loving States and regional organizations, my Government decided to allow the return of United Nations weapons inspectors without conditions as a first step towards a comprehensive solution that includes the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq and the timely implementation of other provisions of relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 687 (1991).”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“Mr. President, I would like, at the outset, to congratulate you on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly and would like to express my appreciation of the United Nations Secretary-General's eloquent statement at the opening of this session, which gave good support to multilateralism and international relations and exposed the dangers of unilateralism and hegemony. I also wish to congratulate the Swiss Confederation on its membership and East Timor on its prospective membership to the United Nations. This session is held one year after the tragic events of 11 September 2001, and I would like to renew our condolences to the American people, especially the families of the victims of this tragedy, and express to them our deep sympathy.”
2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)
“We must remember that the vast resources with which God Almighty has favoured our planet Earth are sufficient to enable us to achieve prosperity, security and stability for all. What we need is the conviction that all human beings are equal in terms of their worth, and we must work hard to avert, and put an end to, all policies and actions that violate this truth and cause upheavals in international relations.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“But today two thirds of the population of the world suffer from underdevelopment and live in misery, while the few live in prosperity. What is required is to reactivate the role of the United Nations in the search for a balanced international economic policy that will lead to greater equality among peoples and States, lessen the intensity of political conflicts and feelings of frustration, engage all as partners in building the world economy, promote human rights and fundamental freedoms, and bring about a better life for peoples. Efforts to reform the international political environment will not meet with success if they are not accompanied by efforts to reform the economic environment with a view to extending prosperity to all humankind.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“I should like to refer here to the Secretary-General’s 1999 annual report on the work of the Organization, in which he stated that “enforcement actions without Security Council authorization threaten the very core of the international security system founded on the Charter of the United Nations” (A/54/1, para. 66). We demand an end to this interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. The Afghan people should be able to make their own political choices, in conformity with their national interests and without any external interference, under whatever pretext. The United Nations was founded for the purpose of achieving security, peace and stability, so that social and economic progress for all peoples might be promoted by a number of means, including avoidance of wars and conflicts.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“The organized terrorism to which the people of Palestine are being subjected by the Zionist entity, the founder and primary source of terrorism, can be seen in the bombing of towns, villages, camps and Islamic and Christian houses of worship, as well as in political assassinations, imposition of collective punishments, occupation of Muslim holy sites, use of depleted uranium ammunitions and poison gases, bulldozing of farms and confiscation of lands. This organized terrorism calls for a reaction on the part of the international community that is commensurate with the gravity of these genocidal practices against a whole people. Similarly, the systematic destruction to which the Afghan people are being subjected at the hands of the American military machine is an illegal unilateral use of force and should come to an end.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“It is the legal and moral obligation of all States that respect international law and the Charter of the United Nations to declare that they are not parties to this crime and that they did not authorize the Security Council to kill the children of Iraq in their name. The 22 comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq have inflicted enormous damage on the interests of a considerable number of the countries of the world, and these countries are called upon to put a stop to these illegal acts and to restore their trade relations with Iraq, in implementation of Article 50 of the Charter.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Pending the completion of the process of reforming the Security Council and of ensuring that it plays its role in conformity with the Charter, States Members of the United Nations should reconsider their authorization to the Council to act on their behalf in the maintenance of international peace and security, since the Council has abused that authorization. There is no more obvious case in this regard than that of the comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq. No just- thinking State can afford to remain a spectator when it sees the authorization it granted to the Security Council being used to annihilate the people of Iraq.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“It has also become necessary to establish a mechanism for judicial review that would rule on the legality and constitutionality of Security Council resolutions in order to ensure that they are consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with international law. We believe that Member States should be able to resort to the International Court of Justice to appeal resolutions of the Security Council which these States consider as involving infringement on the principles of the Charter and international law. Thus we will be able to remedy this flagrant deviation from all democratic, judicial and legal norms and principles in the work and mandate of the Security Council.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“56) Likewise, the expert of the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights had this to say on the subject in a report dated 21 June 2000: “The sanctions regime against Iraq is unequivocally illegal under existing international humanitarian law and human rights law. Some would go as far as making a charge of genocide.” (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/33, para. 71) We therefore call for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council that would lead to the expansion of its membership and to the reform of its methods of work, with specific reference to its decision-making process, so as to ensure full respect by the Council for the purposes and principles of the Charter and the principle of democracy in international relations.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Suffice it to cite, as just one example among many, the fact that the comprehensive sanctions imposed by the Council on Iraq constitute a flagrant violation of the Charter and the mandate of the Council. This was admitted by the United Nations itself, as stated in the report entitled “The right to food”, submitted under cover of the Secretary-General’s note of 23 July 2001, in which the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food said: “There can be little doubt that subjecting the Iraqi people to a harsh economic embargo since 1991 has placed the United Nations in a clear violation of the obligation to respect the right to food of people in Iraq.” (A/56/210, para.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“In discussing the question of reforming the current unsound state of international relations, we must point out the need to reform international mechanisms, foremost among which is the Security Council, to which the Member States of the United Nations have entrusted the primary responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. The practices of the Security Council, especially in the last 11 years, have made it clear that the Council is no longer true to its role as specified by the Charter; that it has become a tool for implementing the policies of one single State; and that it now stands as a glaring model practitioner of double standards.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Here, it is necessary to emphasize the natural, inalienable right of all peoples to defend their sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, as well as to struggle against all forms of terrorism, including foreign occupation, colonialist control and aggression in all its military and economic forms, intervention in the internal affairs of States and the instigation and financing of ethnic and religious conflicts among peoples of the world. All these rights are embodied in the Charter of the United Nations and international law.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Iraq believes that, in order to confront international terrorism, including State terrorism, it is necessary to initiate, under the umbrella of the United Nations, an international effort to reach agreement on a definition of terrorism and on ways to combat it, in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations. Iraq is prepared to participate actively in such an international effort to combat terrorism in all its forms, whether perpetrated by individuals, groups or States.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“They take pride in and cherish their national leadership, holding fast to their sovereignty, dignity and national and regional interests, defending their independence and political choices and defying all the evil intentions that stand behind the aggression and acts of terrorism directed against them. The fact that Iraq is a victim of international terrorism has made it one of the first countries to call for combating terrorism. Iraqi national legislation provides for harsher punishment for terrorist acts. Iraq has signed and ratified most international conventions 21 in force against terrorism.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“The term “terrorism” also applies to the use by the United States and the United Kingdom of more than 300 tons of depleted uranium ammunition against the people of Iraq in 1991. Through the ensuing toxic radiological effects, this has led to an increase in the number of embryonic deformities, a tenfold increase in cancer cases and pollution of the environment of the region for many generations to come. All these and other acts that violate the principles of international law are acts of terrorism. In the face of these acts of terrorism and aggression, Iraq has made many sacrifices in defence of its sovereignty, independence, dignity and national choices. The brave people of Iraq are more determined today than at any time in the past.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“The daily aggression launched by aircraft of the United States and the United Kingdom against Iraqi towns and villages within the so-called no-fly zones imposed by these two States on the basis of a unilateral and illegal decision taken in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law is also State terrorism. We must also mention the explosions carried out in certain Iraqi border areas by elements of mercenary infiltrators, who are financed, armed and harboured by certain States, including the United States, which openly spends tens of millions of dollars on mercenary bands for the purpose of carrying out terrorist operations in Iraq under the so-called Iraq Liberation Act.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Iraq’s towns and villages and economic, scientific and cultural facilities were also systematically targeted and destroyed in the course of the aggression launched by the United States and the United Kingdom and their allies in 1991 and in the five large-scale attacks that followed in 1993, 1996, 1998 and 2001. Furthermore, for 11 years now Iraq has suffered comprehensive sanctions that have deprived its people and that have so far claimed the lives of 1.6 million civilians, the majority of whom are children and the elderly. Both the aggression and the comprehensive sanctions constitute systematic State terrorism directed against an entire people.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“It is now clear that the current discriminatory theories of non- proliferation and the mindset of drawing a distinction between safe and unsafe possession of weapons of mass destruction will not lead to a lessening of the dangers to the world, but instead to the exact opposite. Iraq has suffered and continues to suffer aggression and terrorism. Its leaders, officials and nationals have been subjected to numerous terrorist attempts on their lives. Its towns and villages have been the targets of many acts of terrorism at the hands of terrorist infiltrators coming from across the border, who are sponsored, trained, financed and armed within the framework of State terrorism. The Iraqi nuclear reactor devoted to peaceful purposes was the target of a terrorist attack by warplanes of the Zionist entity in 1981.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“The world will treat it with respect and love after sensing the respect and love coming from it. The world, including the United States, will then have peace, rather than stand at the brink of the abyss.” From this rostrum we call for reason, wisdom and the rule of law to prevail over impetuosity, recklessness and the law of brute force. We stress the importance of proceeding with a comprehensive objective effort to rid the world of all weapons of mass destruction and to set up a just and equitable international order in which all can enjoy peace, security and prosperity.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Perceiving the dangers to which the world is being exposed, our leader President Saddam Hussein of the Republic of Iraq has called for acting wisely and reasonably to spare humanity the scourges of vengeance, war, rancour and hatred. On 29 October 2001, he launched an initiative calling for the world to cooperate, on the basis of a global agreement, to rid itself of the burden and dangers of weapons of mass destruction, beginning with the huge arsenal of such weapons stockpiled primarily in the United States and secondarily in the Zionist entity. In his initiative, President Saddam Hussein emphasized that, “When the United States begins to divest itself of its weapons of mass destruction with the rest of the world following suit, the United States will find its way to the paths of wisdom.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“All this was accompanied by Western media campaigns intended to kindle feelings of rancour, hatred and chauvinism and to stoke the fires of war and aggression in the world. This confirms that the present world order is extremely fragile and that the fires of any conflagration anywhere could spread to the whole world. Indeed, wide as it is, the world could be set on fire by a spark coming from the West. The world needs to save itself from falling into an abyss, to which it is being pushed by policies that have their roots in hubris, arrogance, injustice and 20 aggression. The world needs justice based on fairness; it should not use force on the basis of power and advantage.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“While we have offered our sincere condolences to the American people and the families of the innocent victims of these events, Iraq has expressed its hope that the United States will deal with these events in a spirit of wisdom and responsibility by undertaking a comprehensive review of its policies towards other peoples and States with a view to finding ways to ensure security, stability and peace for the people of the United States and for all the peoples of the world. The United States, however, has once again resorted to the logic of brute force; hence its aggression against Afghanistan. Then came the use of biological materials in subversive operations, whose source, according to American authorities, is most likely to be found in the United States.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Attempts are increasing to impose certain cultures on the peoples of the world, heaping scorn on their religious beliefs, creeds and political and social choices and preaching the clash of civilizations and the launching of new crusades. It was in these circumstances that the events of 11 September took place in the United States, with all the ensuing suffering and victims.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“Instability in international relations has increased as a result of the unilateral management of international affairs on the basis of the law of brute force. There has been a proliferation of such phenomena as the unilateral use of force, infringement of international law and the Charter, political blackmail, blockades and violation of peoples’ rights to determine their own political, economic and social choices. The suffering of the peoples of developing countries has increased as a result of the lack of economic and social development and the widespread tendencies among wealthy nations to impose their economic hegemony and technical and scientific blockades under the guise of globalization.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)
“I am glad to extend to you, Sir, my congratulations on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at this important session. We are fully confident that you will guide its work to complete success. I am also pleased to congratulate the Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on his re-election to a second term of office. This session of the General Assembly acquires special importance given that it is being held at a time when the international family is facing increasingly serious problems. The deterioration of the international political and economic environment has reached an alarming point, threatening the very core of the individual and collective security of the Member States and the future of humanity as a whole.”
2001-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 56 (2001)