A/36/PV.85 General Assembly

The positions of delegations re- garding the various recommendations of the Sixth Com- mittee have been made clear in the Committee and are reflected in the relevant official records. 7. May I remind members that by decision 34/40I the General Assembly agreed that when the sqme draft reso- lution is considered in a Main Committee and in plenary meeting, a delegation should, as far as possible, explain its vote only once, that is, either in the Committee or in plenary meeting, unless that delegation's vote in plenary meeting is different from its vote in the Committee. May I also remind members that, in accordance with that same decision, explanations of vote should not exceed 10 min- utes and should be made by delegations from their seats. 8. I now invite Members to turn their attention to the report of the Sixth Committee on agenda item 115 [A/36/727]. 9. The representative of Seychelles has' asked to be al- lowed to make a statement at this juncture. As there ap- pears to be no objection, I shall now call on her.

Mr. President, I thank you for calling on me to address the General As- sembly while it is considering the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Drafting of an International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries. It is most disturbing to note that, in spite of 11. I wish to apprise the General Assembly of the events in the Seychelles since 25 November 1981. The Seychelles People's Defence Forces are conducting mop- ping-up operations following their successful repulse of an armed mercenary attack on the Republic of Seychelles at Pointe Lame International Airport on Wednesday, 25 November. 12. After very heavy fighting, at a cost of very few ca- sualties, the Defence Forces which included the Police Force and the People's Militia, succeeded in dislodging the mercenaries and regained full control of the airport. Those mercenaries who were not killed or captured, or who had not fled back to the safety of South Africa by hijacking an Air India Boeing 707, fled into the hills around the airport. We are now tracking them down. 13. The operation at Pointe Lame Airport started at 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 25 November, when some 45 armed foreigners launched their attack. They had man- aged to land safely by coming in on a scheduled Royal Swazi Air flight from Manzini, in Swaziland. The at- tackers took as hostages about 70 people found in the area before taking over control of the air terminal build- ing, the airport control tower and the cargo terminal. The hostages were either ambushed on the main road or cap- tured in the airport offices. While they were in control of the tower, the mercenaries tricked a scheduled Air India flight into landing, and subsequently a few of them forced their way aboard the plane and hijacked it to Durban, South Africa. There the group, wliich included at least one dead and two seriously injured, was taken by police to a military base outside Pretoria. The Air India pas- sengers and crew disembarked unharmed. 14. Meanwhile in Seychelles, once the civilian aircraft was out of the way the Seychelles People's Defence Forces launched a determined ass&ult on the mercenaries' positions. Unable to hold out, the mercenaries were forced to break up and were either killed or. captured or fled out of the airport grounds, across the main road and into the bush up the mountain. By noon on Thursday, 26 November, the airport had been rescued and was once more secure and mopping-up sweeps were being mounted. The country's Defence Forces suffered one mar- tyr and a few injured. We salute the dead and the injured. Their sacrifice was not in vain. The list of enemy casu- alties is still being compiled. 15. The South African Foreign Minister, Mr. Botha, has said that most of the mercenaries who hijacked the Air India flight were South Africans. However, the Associated Press bureau in Johannesburg has reported by telephon.e that according to a South African newspaper the mercen- aries were South Africans, Rhodesians and a mixture of Europeans especially trained for the job with financial aid from another Power presumably to overthrow the Seychelles Government. 16. According to the Johannesburg media last week, the mercenaries were paid 1,000 rand in advance, to be fol- lowed by another 10,000 on the successful completion of their mission. South African security forces have said that 17. The Manzini air authorities had thought that the 45 men and two women who boarded the Royal Swazi Air flight to Seychelles were a party of tourists. The group, they said, came from South Africa in a tourist bus. The flight went ahead as normal via Moroni in the Comoros. 18. Everything is now under complete and total control in Seychelles. The vigilance repeatedly called for in the past by the country's leaders has now been justified. The attack is proof that there have always been those who, at any cost, do not wish to allow a peace-loving, progressive and hard-working people to live in tranquillity among idyllic surroundings if its objective is socialism, true de- mocracy and real prosperity for all. 19. The Seychelles, being a beautiful country which is popular with the tourist trade, has also attracted such envy among some that they are always attempting to de- stabilize its economic prosperity. Nevertheless, Wednes- day's action by the people of Seychelles and their People's Defence Forces has equally proved the nation's determina- tion to allow no one to divert it from its chosen path. It has reinforced our strength as a people and as a nation. Our unity of purpose is more determined than ever. 20. Certain people continue to harbour evil designs on the Seychelles-to seize this independent African country physically and transform it into a client State in order to use it as a base for subversion and aggression against free Africa, encircle the front-line States and tighten the stran- glehold of the forces of imperialism over the Indian Ocean. 21. The South African racist minority regime has shown in no uncertain terms that it had a hand in the organiza- tion of this invasion. Contrary to its own stringent anti- hijacking laws, the South African racist regime has freed all the mercenaries despite the request by the Government of the Republic of Seychelles for their return to Seychelles for trial by a tribunal appointed by the United Nations. 22. If South Africa contends that it is innocent in this affair, it must co-operate fully in an international investi- gation into the background and financing of this criminal venture. The Seychelles Government is prepared to make arrangements for the criminals, once returned, to be tried by a tribunal appointed by the United Nations. 23. This aggression is in pursuance of the apartheid regime's policy of destabilizing legitimate Governments of independent African States. The world is now watching to see if the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Sei- zure of Aircraft, signed at The Hague on 16 December 1970" which obligates South Africa to submit for pros- ecution or to extradite persons accused of unlawfully seiz- ing aircraft, will be enforced.. 24. We call the attention of the General Assembly also to an agreement by the United States and six other major 25. On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Seychelles, I wish to express our gratitude for the prompt action taken by the Secretary-General once he was ap- prised of the critical situation in my country. I wish also to thank all the members of the Assembly for their kind messages of solidarity addressed to my Mission, my Gov- ernment and me personally in these circumstances. My Government hopes that all nations bound by the Charter of the United Nations. will assume their responsibilities, not only in adopting an international convention against the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercen- aries but also. in sincerely endeavouring to implement such a convention effectively once it comes into force, thus eliminating the scourge of mercenarism from the face of the world.

I am certain that I shall be acting in conformity with the sentiments of the entire General Assembly if I make a brief comment on the events de- scribed by the representative of the Seychelles: this use of mercenaries and the hijacking of an aircraft are reprehen- sible and obviously contrary to all forms of international law, and deserve the strongest condemnation. 27. In paragraph 10 of its report [A/36/727] , the Sixth Committee recommends the adoption of the draft resolu- tion entitled "Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Drafting of an International Convention against the Re- cruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries". The administrative and financial implications of the draft resolution are contained in the report of the Fifth Com- mittee [A/36/734]. 28. The Assembly will now take a decision on the draft resolution. The Sixth Committee adopted it by consensus. May I take it that the General Assembly also wishes to do so?

We shall consider next the report of the Sixth Committee on agenda item 126, entitled "Registration and publication of treaties and international agreements pursuant to Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations" [A/36/715]. May I take it that the Gen- eral Assembly adopts the draft decision recommended by the Sixth Committee in paragraph 5 of its report?

In the inexorable evolution of the history of generations it seems that at one particular time events come together in the form of warning signs. On the choice made by men has depended their understanding, their salvation or their destruction. Our generation has already paid heavily for not having seen in time, and for not having understood, 31. Even though the memory of the horrors of the last world war remains vivid, our common horizon has been darkened by other tragedy-filled clouds which have been developing for more than 30 years. One hangs over Af- rica and the other over the Middle East. 32. The General Assembly has just concluded its con- sideration of agenda item 32, on the policy of apartheid of the Government of South Africa, which denies funda- mental rights, including the right to life itself, to the blacks of South Africa, the legitimate heirs to the Hmd of South Africa, their homeland. In its wisdom and global vision of the problems of safeguarding and maintaining peace, the General Assembly has condemned the system of apartheid and has recommended a number of measures aimed at eliminating it. 33. The other threat to the world order comes from Pal- estine, because of the grave injustice done to an entire people whose rights have been usurped on the very soil of its homeland. The legitimate rebellion of the Palestinian people, translated into a process of regaining by arms its reason for existence, has three times engulfed the Middle East in flames. Last July the deliberately staged military attack on Lebanon once again threatened the world with a generalized conflict. Thus, the question of Palestine is not merely a question of restoring the rights of a people; it is a question of a return to peace in the Middle East, a question of peace or war. To leave the problem without solution, distorted by an immense, cleverly orchestrated disinformation campaign, will mean a more actue inter- national crisis in the future. 34. When I took par.t in the debate on the question of Palestine in July 1980, at the 10th meeting of the seventh emergency special session of the Assembly, I said: "Palestine is not something that was thought up in a foreign ministry; nor was it simply a gift offered under the pressure of geo-political demands or as penance for the dreadful events of the last world war. The Palestin- ians have fashioned their homeland according to their own brilliant civilization. All that they are asking for is to continue that marvellous work for which mankind should be grateful. "But alas, these children of the Book, of wisdom and of courage are today prisoners in their land, if they have not been forced to leave it, as a result of the ma- noeuvres of those who hold power today and the un- acceptable manifestations of Israeli colonial conquest." 35. That bitter fact remains true. It is nevertheless dis- turbing to note that it is becoming more and more alarm- ing in its scope, more and more distressing, because of Israel's stubborn persistence in wishing to implement its futile dream of submitting to its laws a people so deeply attached to its lands and ancestral values. 36. Indeed, the policy of colonization practised by Israel in Palestine is similar to all the forms of brutal domina- 37. The Palestinian people is part of history, which it has enriched and made more beautiful. Israel's militaristic policy in Palestine, from which emerged the voices of im- mortal messengers of world peace, has imposed on the Palestinian people the martyrdom suffered by peoples doomed to exile or compelled to live persecuted in their own homeland. But all these vicissitudes have not broken the Palestinian people; on the contrary, they have only hardened and tempered it. It has acquired a heightened awareness of its own identity. Out of the turmoil of its present existence, it has raised itself to a level of national unity achieved only by great peoples. It has imposed a reality which is increasingly becoming a determining fac- tor in the search for any just and lasting solution to the Middle East crisis-a crisis which periodically makes the world tremble. This reality is the Palestinian fact which is now recognized in all the countries of the world and, in particular, by a number of high-ranking political figures who only recently considered it a negligible part of a wave of disturbances that gave so much pleasure to some young people in the world. 38. It is this fact, this reality the existence of which Israel denies but which, nevertheless, it is struggling against. Such a contradiction would be left to the talents of humorists were it not a question of the rights of a peo- ple, of the lives of millions and of the serious problem posed for the maintenance of peace. 39. The Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO], with which the Palestinian people identifies itself to achieve its hopes and aspirations, has become for the Israeli colo- nizer a nightmare which it believes it can destroy by the sword. However, the fact is that each time Israel redou- bles its attach against the PLO, more and more Palestin- ian fighters rise from the ruins to stamp Israel's intempe- rate use of its we'apons with the label of cruel vanity. Periodically, new destruction is added to the already so very costly destruction endured by peaceful Lebanon, a signatory of the Charter but whose sovereignty is con- stantly violated by a State created by the United Nations. 40. War, it must be recalled, does not settle problems but rather makes them more complicated and more diffi- cult to untangle. The wisdom of nations is built upon tol- erance and respect for the values which have been accu- mulated by mankind throughout the ages and with which it identifies. Hence it is opposed to the Israeli practice of gratuitous destruction of dwellings, leaving Palestinian women and children without shelter. It is opposed to the confiscation of Palestinian property in order to implant the myth of a new Promised Land; it is opposed to ~the closing of schools, to arrest without trial of persons dem- ocratically elected to power by the people; it is opposed to the erosion of the frontiers of sovereign States in the name of a never-defined security. 41. For all those reasons, the international community must pay particular attention to the adoption by the Tel Aviv Government of the master plan for the develppment of settlements in Judaea and Samaria, 1979-1983, Rut for- ward by the World Zionist Organization.· 1 As is known, 42. The comprehensive strategy of incorporating Pal- estinian lands into Israel not only results in the usurping of the land and property of the Palestinians but also vio- lates the conscience of mankind in declaring Jerusalem Israel's "eternal and indivisible capital". The Security Council certainly reflected international indignation at ~uch. usurpatioI) of the common heritage of mankind when it adopted resolution 478 (1980), which "censures III the strongest terms the enactment by Israel of the 'basic Jaw on Jerusalem and the refusal to comply with relevant Se- curity Council resolutions". 43. That refusal persists to this day. It has become an act of sacrilege because, in spite of the disapproval of the General Assembly, Israel continues, in the name of so- called archaeological excavations, the. digging of a tunnel under AI-Haram AI-Sharif, thus threatening the very exis- tence of sanctuaries which are among the most venerated in Islam and which are considered the heritage of man- kind. 44. The violence unleashed by Israel in Palestine, where so many universal values have accumulated, would deal a fatal blow to our common civilization were it to be per- petuated and generalized. Our conduct and our duty to .prevent the collapse of our admirable achievements are therefore clearly set out before us. We must by all possi- ble means assist the Palestinian people to recover its homeland and to live there in keeping witil its traditions and the administrative rules of its own choosing. 45. At this session of the General Assembly, the Com- mittee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People reiterates in its report [A/36/35, para. 49-53]-which was admirably submitted to the Assembly by its Chairman, Mr. Sarre of Senegal, and its Rappor- teur, Mr. Gauci of Malta-recommendations which go to the core of the question of the rights of the Palestinian people in all their aspects and outline the framework for the search for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian trag- edy. 46. We welcome the Committee's initiatives for peace, and in the name of peace we once again appeal to the Security Council to take up the recommendations con- tained in that report. The Charter of the United Nations requires that it do so because it confers upon it special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. During the current year, the programme of work of the Committee dealt with a number of fields which have been amply described in its report. The Com- mittee has been concerned to have the Palestinian fact be- come widely known throughout the international commu- nity, so that the peace proposals from various quarters may be supplemented and be better understood by all the peoples that love peace and justice throughout the world. Among those proposals are m..ny initiatives Which the leaders of Israel have unfortunately not understood as pro- posals in its own interests. "The latest, highly historic initiative, taken by Emir Fahd ibn Abdul Aziz, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after the important Third Islamic Summit Conference, held at Mecca-Taif, deserves the full attention of the current session of the General Assembly. ..Indeed, this peace plan aims concretely at finding a comprehensive solution to the problem of the Middle East in general and the Palestinian problem in particu- lar. The peace plan's eight points are in keeping with the relevant decisions of the aforementioned Islamic Summit Conference. They are in keeping with the ... recognized and admitted standards of international law. " [23rd meeting, para. 40 and 41.] 48. That plan,4 like others, is noteworthy by its exis- tence alone, but one of its particular features is that it comes from one of the parties directly concerned by the Palestine crisis and by the generally disturbing situation prevailing in the Middle East. 49. The General Assembly is thus sufficiently prepared to give shape to a real framework for peace in the Middle East with full respect for the interests of all parties con- cerned, including, obviously, the PLO. The shape of that framework has already been set forth by the delegation of Mali at various international forums which have dealt with the problem of the Middle East. We should like to recall very briefly here that it should be based on the following factors: the inalienable right to self-determina- ,1 tion of the Palestinian people, including its right to set up a sovereign State if that is its desire; recognition of the legitimacy of the PLO and of the fact that it is the sole representative of the Palestinian people; total and uncondi- tional withdrawal from the Arab territories occupied 'by Israel in 1967. 50. The General Assembly is occupied with a series of draft resolutions of which my country is a sponsor. Those draft resolutions have one major goal, that is, to commit the international Organization to adopting the necessary measures for gaining respect for the ideals of justice and for human dignity, which give strength and universality to the Charter of the United Nati9ns. The quest for defini- tive solutions to the Palestinian problem lies within the United Nations. It is our duty to embark promptly upon this path of peace. The idea of convening of an interna- tional conference on the question of Palestine, at the latest in 1984, contained in draft resolution Al36iL.33, is thus of historic significance. Si. By adopting all these texts unanimously the General Assembly will once again show that it is an instrument of peace, that it is working only for peace for.the majesty and dignity of peoples.

The situation of the Palestinian people has continued to deteriorate day by day, and the interna- tional community seems powerless to influence positively the attainment of the legitimate and inalienable rights of that people. 53. This Organization has only too often set forth the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes, to their property and to their land from which they were evicted. 54. We have demanded the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied territories, in- cluding Jerusalem. We have determined that all measures and legislative acts by Israel aimed at altering the char- acter of Jerusalem are null and void. Once again this is not a moral position, but a position of defending, through these demands, the principle of the non-acquisition of ter- ritory by force. 55. The Israeli acts of aggression against Iraq and Lebanon underscore once again that Israel is bent on maintaining its version of stability in the Middle East, a stability which seeks to crush not only the just resistance of the Palestinians, but also the great Arab people, which shares the struggle of the Palestinians and stands by their side. 56. That is why we must emphasize again that it is no longer possible to establish a just, genuine or lasting peace in the Middle East without attaining, inter alia, a comprehensive solution of the problem of Palestine, that is to say, a solution based on the realization of the in- alienable rights of the Palestinian people. 57. This very basic consideration, which is increasingly being recognized by the countries and peoples of the world, leads us to the logical conclusion that it is neces- sary to ensure the full participation of the Palestinian peo- ple and of its heroic representative, the PLO, in all peace efforts in the Middle East, on an equal footing. 58. Nicaragua, like the vast majority of countries in the world, therefore rejects partial agreements such as Camp David, concluded outside the framework of the United Nations and which constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Palestinian people by claiming to determine the future of that people and its territories. 59. But obviously not all States Members of the United Nations share that view. On repeated occasions the just efforts of the international community to attain Palestinian rights have run up against the wall of the widespread abuse of the veto in the Security Council by Israel's main ally. What is more, the so-called strategic collaboration between the United States and Israel can only encourage Zionist elements to step up their policy of hostility and aggression against the Arab nation. 60. The United States, cc>.ught in the intricate web of contradictions which flow from its traditional support for repressive and racist regimes like Tel Aviv, refuses to rec- ognize the recommendations of the General Assembly in defence of the r :ghts of the Palestinian people. It even rejects mere recourse to dialogue, notwithstanding the in- creasingly urgent appeals by broad domestic and interna- tional sectors. 61. Since '1976 the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People has been car- rying out patient and persistent work, submitting reports and recommendations to the Security Council which are basically a synthesis of the resolutions of the General As- sembly aimed at attaining an equitable settlement of the 62. The Organization remains paralysed, incapable of offering cl peaceful and lawful opening to peoples such as the peoples of Palestine, Namibia or El Salvador, who to- day have to resort, with full legitimacy, to armed struggle in order to defend their sacred rights to freedom and inde- pendence. 63. Frankly, given this record it is praiseworthy to see the Palestinian people through its legitimate representative still believing in the constructive role of the Organization in the quest for peace and justice. In order to maintain faith in the United Nations, we need decisive and imper- ative measures leading to a solution of the Palestinian question and of the problem of the Middle East. 64. The United Nations has a primary duty to assist in the task of~aining peace and stability in the Middle East, which logically, politically and morally entails re- jection of the Zionist concept of security based on the acquisition of more lands, on the subjugation of the peo- ples of the region and on the exploitation of their re- sources and on giving military support to repressive and genocidal regimes in Africa and in Central America. 65. Today more than ever we must make a start, and the fIrst step would be the adoption of the draft resolutions now before us, in order to show once again who is op- posed to legitimate peace and stability in the Middle East and who are the enemies of the noble people of Palestine. 66. Once again we reiterate our fIrm, solid support for that brother people and its sole legitimate representative, the PLO.

The question of Pal- estine has been on the agenda of the General Assembly . since the very inception of the United Nations, but be- cause of Zionist and imperialist manoeuvres it was taken up only from a strictly humanitarian point of view until very recently. In fact, this question has been considered in its true political context by the Assembly and other bodies in the United Nations only since 1974. 68. In 1974, following events with serious consequences for peace and stability in the Middle East and the human suffering which they caused, and following the decisive turning-point in the stubborn struggle for the self-determi- 74. The persistence of this unrealistic and isolationist nation and independence of the Palestinian people under position of the United States has largely contributed to the valiant leadership of its sole legitimate representative, creating a situation of extreme tension in the Middle East the PLO, the General Assembly, in its collective realism~ which is a serious threat to peace and stability in that part adopted resolution 3236 (XXIX), in which it clearly set of the world. In view of the primary role played by the forth the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian peo- United States, as a super-Power and a permanent member pIe. To help to achieve those rights, the following year of the Security Council, in the maintenance of intema- the General Assembly, by resolution 3376 (XXX), estab- tional peace and security, it is highly desirable that the lished the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable United States abandon its obstructionist attitude and, in Rights of the Palestinian People, composed of 20 M~ember accordance with the rule of democracy, join in the inter- States, including my own. In its fIrst report to the Gen- national consensus on the question of Palestine. eral Assembly, in 1976,5 that Committee made a number . : of recommendations which were approved by a very 1 ~e 75. It would also be a good idea if Israel, which owes majoriry of the members of the~::e_m~l:_~ ~ its_:exp~cte~:i:t~ ::i:~~t::~_:O~ld, gi=_U~__. _~ 70. We recall those facts because they represent the most accurate expression of the international collective consciousness. However, despite that ever-growing recog- nition of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, it is most regrettable that the pronounced and sus- tained efforts of the United Nations to date-and es- pecially by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalien- able Rights of the Palestinian People, under the very skilful leadership of Mr. Massamba Sarre of Senegal-to realize those rights have remained completely fruitless be- cause of the intransigent attitude of Israel, unconditionally and invariably supported by the United States. 71. It is absolutely imperative that our debate not result, as. in the past, in a mere recording of facts and verbal condemnation. Ways and means must be found to elimi- nate the obstacles erected on the path to the exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights, thereby restoring the climate of trust among and peaceful coexis- tence of all peoples and States of the region that is so necessary for a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine and, hence, of the Middle East as a whole. 72. In that respect, it must be emphasized that the main obstacle to the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people unquestionably is the inability of the Security Council to act. The Security Council, having taken up on several occasions since 1976 the question of Palestine in its new and true context, has nevertheless been unable to take a decision on the recommendations of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People because of the successive vetoes of the United States, one of the permanent members of the Council. 73. In taking that negative and hostile attitude towards the recommendations of the Committee and of the Gen- eral Assembly, the United States has resolutely opposed the consensus expressed by the international community that the total and full exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable national rights is a sine qua nOIl for a just and lasting solution of the Middle East question. fur- thermore, that negative and hostile attitude clearly demon- strates not only the refusal of the United States to take into consideration positive developments in international opinion favouring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, but also shows that the United States Government disregards American public opinion, which has come out more and more openly in favour of the Palestinian people. 76. It is a unanimously acknowledged fact that Israel has so far been able to continue to trample under foot all the relevant United Nations resolutions and to turn a deaf ear to all the appeals addressed to it by all the peace- loving and justice-loving peoples and organizations throughout the world precisely because of the support and encouragement given it by the United States. That con- stant support and encouragement has once again been given to the Tel Aviv regime through the recent signing of the protocol on American-Israeli agreement for strategic co-operation. That agreement, which clearly shows the pro-Israel and anti-Arab direction of United States policy, is a further dangerous step towards increased tension in the Middle East and leaves no doubt about the true nature of United States policy and its tiny ally, Israel, in that part of the world-namely, to bury forever the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and to perpetuate forever the illegal occupation by Israel of the Palestinian home- land and Arab lands, thereby transforming the Middle East into a zone of destabilization and constant conflict, which serves the hegemonist and expansionl~[ aims of both countries. 77. Furthermore, the many facts that have emerged in the last few months, both locally and in the neighbouring areas-particularly the acceleration and intensification of the establishment of settlements in the occupied territo- ries, the illegal proclamation of the Holy City of Jerusa- lem as the eternal capital of Israel, the acts of bloody repression committed by the Israeli authorities against the civilian Arab population of the occupied territories in vio- lation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949,(, the ruthless expulsion of the Arab mayors of the principal towns of the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip, and the undertaking of construction through the Gaza Strip of a canal linking the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea-have clearly shown that we are headed not towards the achievement by the Palestinian people of their inalien- able rights, but rather towards the total annexation of Pal- estine and the occupied Arab lands by means of a policy of assimilation, repression and massive expulsion of the Arab peoples. 78. Along with that policy, and with the aim of stifling and eliminating forever the legitimate struggle of the Pal- estinian people, the Tel Aviv regime has embarked on death-dealing attacks against Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanese territory, thus seriously infringing on the inde- pendence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that 84. India's sympathy for the people of Palestine in their country. Furthermore, the criminal raid carried out by the suffering and our support for the establishment of a Pal- Israeli military rabble against the peaceful Iraqi nuclear estinian State go back to the days of our own freedom installation is a further demonstration-if any were struggle, when our national leaders saw a parallel be- needed-that thanks to the support of its great and power- tween our struggle for nationhood and that of the Palesti- ful ally from over the Atlantic, Israel is feverishly en- nians. The continuing struggle of the Palestinians evokes gaged, within the framework of the Camp David agree- sympathy and understanding among the people of India to ments, in reshaping the military map of the Middle East this day. India has consistently argued that a just and in accordance with its hegemonistic and expansionistic comprehensive solution to the problems of West Asia aims. should consist of the exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable national and human rights including the 79. The time has come, if we want to spare this region right to establish an independent State in their homeland, another general conflict with unforeseeable consequences the total and uncondit~onal withdrawal by Israel from all j~=~~~~~:~~~~~~ 80. Continuing the discussion on internal autonomy for Palestine, which has been universally rejected and con- demned, will have no result except to increase further the tension in that part of the world. 81. The time for the various Governments to repeat their positions of principle in the Assembly is over; that must give way to collective action firmly aimed at putting an end to the suffering and humiliation of the Palestinian people and at restoring just and lasting peace in the Mid- dle East. My delegation will support any effort to that end.

A full year has passed since the General Assembly last considered the question of Pal- estine and adopted yet another resolution reaffirming cer- tain fundamental principles and once again endorsing a set of recommendations for the implementation of the various decisions of the United Nations on the subject. But the question of Palestine is no nearer a solution today than it was 34 years ago, when the United Nations made the solemn pledge of a homeland to the Palestinians. The Palestinians still remain uprooted from their hearths and homes; their land continues to be occupied and colonized by Israel; West Asia remains gripped by tension; the peace and security of the region and of the rest of the world continue to be threatened. 83. By its intransigent and expansionist policies, Israel has thwarted the will of the international community with regard to Palestine and has escalated the conflict in West Asia in total disregard for international law and the basic norms of responsible behaviour. The current debate pro- vides us with another opportunity to reaffirm our full sup- port for the people of Palestine in their quest for sov- ereignty and to renew our call upon Israel to heed the opinion of the international community and abide by the decisions of the United Nations. But it is clearer now than ever before that a solution to the question of Palestine can be found only if Israel's compliance with the United Na- tions resolutions is enforced by recourse to the methods available under the Charter. ~e~urity and to follow its own domestic and foreign pol- ICIes. 86. An essential prerequisite for the attainment of a peaceful solution is the full and equal participation of the PLO, the only genuine representative of the Palestinian people, in any discussions relating to their future, or in- deed to the future of the entire region. 87. Partial agreements and superficial solutions at- tempted in the past have shown that unless these cardinal principles are accepted there is very little prospect for genuine and durable peace in the area. Certain agree- ments arrived at without the participation of the represen- tatives of the Palestinian people and of countries directly concerned with this question have served only to cause dissension among the supporters of the Palestinians and to give Israel lame excuses to delay its withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine. 88. The annexation of Jerusalem and the declaration that it is the eternal capital of Israel have been universally condemned. Security Council resolution 478 (1980), adopted on 20 August 1980, reflects the indignation of the world at the Israeli '!ction with regard to the Holy City. India has consistently held the view that Jerusalem is part of those territories that must be vacated by Israel in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations. India has always been, and continues to be, to- tally opposed to Israeli attempts to alter the character and status of the Holy City: 89. The events in West Asia during the past year indi- cate .that Israel has hardened its position and is deter- mined to work for the systematic elimination of Palestin- ians and to escalate the threat to the security of its neighbours. In the process of establishing new settlements in the occupied territories, Israel has trampled upon the rights of the local population, crushed dissent by the use of brute force :md engaged in a systematic depletion of the basic resources of the areas inhabited by the Arab population. The heroic resistance of the Palestinian people to the Israeli colonizers has been characterized as "ter- rorism", and massive reprisals against the PLO have re- sulted in the destruction of life and property in neighbour- ing Lebanon. The massive attack on Lebanon in July this year as part of Israel's policy of pre-emptive strikes was aimed not only at destabilizing Lebanon, but also at ham- pering the whole peace-keeping effort of the United Na- tions in the region. The destruction of Iraq's nuclear in- stallation by Israel was undoubtedly part of Israel's strategy to weaken the supporters of Palestine. More re-, cently, Israel concluded a strategic co-operation agree-· ment. thus bestowing an ideological dimension on the conflict in West Asia. The increased involvement of exter- nal forces in West Asia can hardly contribute to peace and stability in the region. "We are glad there is increasing awareness in the 90. In the face of acts of aggression. threats and world community of this just cause. The Committee on provocation. Palestinian nationalism and unanimous Arab the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian support for it remained steadfast. Even as Israel's reign- of People has a significant role. I send my good wishes terror in the occupied Arab lands was intensified, the in- for its endeavours." . 91. The non-aligned movement, of which India is a member, has consistently supported the cause of the Pal- estinian people. The PLO not only is a fully fledged member of the movement but also serves on its Co-or- -dTnating Bureau. A missIon dispatched by the movement to Lebanon on an invitatio~ extended to it by the PLO had an opportunity to examine and assess the damage and destruction which resulted from the Israeli attacks on Beirut and areas in southern Lebanon. The mission ob- served that, in addition to the tremendous damage and destruction of property, there was indiscriminate slaughter of civilians. It concluded that the Israeli attacks "were evidence that once again Israel had violated the sov- ereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon, completely disregarding international law, the resolutions of the United Nations and world public opinion. These barbaric attacks revealed the Israeli intentions to exterminate the Palestinian people." [A/36/547, annex, para. 64.] The mission observed and was impressed by the ability of the PLO and the Palestinian people to make the best use of the assistance received by them and felt convinced that external financial and technical assistance would contrib- ute to the success of their efforts to ameliorate the living conditions of the Palestinian people. We endorse the rec- ommendation of the mission, on which India was repre- sented. that States and international organizations should sympathetically examine the needs of the Palestinian peo- ple and make appropriate contributions as a matter of urgency. We condemn Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon and call for the cessation of Israeli aggression against Lebanon. 92. As a member of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, India has fully supported the Committee in its efforts to secure the rights of the Palestinian peopl~ and to promote their cause. The report of the Committee bears testimony to its untiring efforts under the leadership of Mr. Massamba Sarre of Senegal. Though the basic recommendations of the Committee have remained unimplemented so far, its activities during the year, particularly the holding of semi- nars in different regions of the world, have served to arouse the conscience of humanity in support of the cause of Palestine. In a message addressed to the Chairman of the Committee a few days ago, the Prime Minister of In- dia, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, stated the following: "On the solemn occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, I affirm to the Committee the full support of the Government and the people of India in the realization of its objectives. "Our support for the Palestinian cause has been con- sistent and has been part of our foreign policy since its very inception. Even in the thirties. when we ourselves were struggling for freedom. Mahatma Gandhi and Jaw- aharlal Nehru expressed sympathy for the Arabs of Pal- estine in the face of Zionist threats and wished them complete success in the attainment of their objectives. 94. In fact, the case of Israel represents a typical exam- ple of the strategy of imperialism in dealing with peoples who wish to maintain their sovereignty vis-a-vis the two super-Powers. Imperialism is stubbornly rejecting the fact that peoples of the world have gained consciousness and can see the dirty tricks used for the sake of exploiting them and that this consciousness will eventually wrench the hands of imperialism from the national resources of the majority of the peoples of the world. 10 offset this consciousness, imperialism has repeatedly resorted to ag- gression, whether directly as in Viet Nam, or through its agents, as in the case of Palestine. /, 95. The method is clear: land is occupied and forcefully held for a period of time that allows the act of occupation gradually to gain some degree of recognition. To gain more time, a limited compromise is offered by the ag- gressor to create preoccupation and hope while occupation itself is continuously being consolidated. To terminate the whole process, a fraction ,,;' £be original congE.;: t i:: in fact returned and this is interv.:ted as a major dernonstra- tion of good faith on the p3ii of the aggressor. In this context, I wish to quote lhe words of the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who has stated "It is alleged that one of the positive elements of the latest plan is that Israel will retreat from land it occupied in the 1967 war. This in fact is ~ts main negative element because it incorporates acceptance that the rest of Pal- estine is permanently lost." 96. We believe that the most effective way to fight ag- gression by imperialism is for the peoples of the world to stick firmly to principle and to refuse to compromise their principles for the sake of some material gains, even if not compromising necessitates sacrifices. The Palestine ques- tion will be solved only if the Palestinian people remain :'aithful to their principles and refuse to adhere to compro- mising plans like that of Camp David-both the first and the second. Representatives will realize, of course, that we call the Fahd plan4 the second Camp David. 97. We are not trying to prescribe hypocritical remedies in this forum. What we are arguing for is exactly what we ourselves are applying in our own case. We have accepted every sacrifice in order not to compromise our principles. We condemn aggression and we believe that aggressors should not be encouraged by being allowed to obtain po- litical or material gains through acts of aggres~ion. This is 98. Some of the Arab States, for example, while con- demning Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the strongest terms, proudly support and finance the war of aggression that Saddam has waged on Iran. They ..::ondemn Israel [or having occupied Arab lands, but they cheer the Iraqi occupation of Iranian lands. They refuse to accept an Israeli-imposed peace, but they expect In~n to accept an Iraqi-imposed peace. It is such selectivity in application of the principles of the Charter that has led to the continued consideration of the question of Palestine for more than three decades without any solution. This is why my Government is not optimistic with regard to the capability of the United Nations system to terminate not only the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, but aggression in general. And this is why the people of Iran have chosen not to wait for the United Nations to liberate their occupied land but rather to rely upon God and upon their faith to continue fighting their war of liberation to final victory, whatever the cost and sacrifices. 99. When the first movement of the Islamic revolution of Iran took place 18 years ago, the major thrust of the objection of the leader of the revolution and of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, to the deposed Shah was his collaboration with Zionist Israel under the aus- pices of American imperialism. It has become obvious since then that the struggle against the racist and usurper regime of Israel constitutes one of the basic building blocks of the revolution. We have felt the impact of the close collaboration between the deposed Shah and Zionist Israel, and especially its diabolical Mossad organization, in almost all aspects of our lives, and most of all in the prison cells of the Shah's SAVAK. We can still remember that in the days when Israel was destroying the lives and property of our Moslem Arab brothers, the traitor Shah was rendering assistance to the Zionist regime. ~n fact, many of our youth were martyred or went through torture in the prisons of SAVAK for having demonstrated their opposition to that collaboration. 100. Our opposition to Israel stems from our Islamic ideals. Islam has taught us to resist aggression wherever it occurs. We are s~pporting our Moslem Arab brothers be:' cause we knew that they, as well as we, are struggling not for the sake of some material gain, but because they want to protect and promote theIr ideals and principles. It is those ideals, originating from the message of Islam, that tie us strongly to the cause of the Palestinian people. The leader of our revolution has stated this notion very dis- tinctly: "Our country, our nation which has had so many martyrs as well as disabled-many of them are present here and may Allah heal them-is faithful to Islam, and we do not consider Islam as limited only to Iran. Islam is Islam everywhere. It is the same Islam in Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Hejaz and Syria as well as other places. We cannot count ourselves as separate from other Moslems. These losses that are inflicted and all these martyrs, disabled and homeless people are all for the cause of Islam. And since Iran is an Islamic coun- 101. Although the people of Iran were triumphant in de- stroying the grip of imperialism on the country and free- ing themselves from the despotism of its agent, the Shah, we shall not feel the complete triumph of our revolution until our Palestinian brothers have attained victory over th~ usurper, Israel, and have punished it for its continuous cnmes. 102. We believe that there is no way for our Palestinian brothers and sisters to regain their usurped rights except by continuing their just struggle against the Zionist ag- gressors and by rejecting all compromising plots. Any collaboration with the enemies of Islam leads only to dis- grace, as experience has shown, and as taught to us by the Holy Koran, from which I quote: "0 ye who believe! If ye obey the Unbelievers, they will drive you back on your heels, and ye will turn back (from Faith) to your own loss. "Nay, God is your Protector, and He is the best of helpers." [Sura 1I1, verses 149-150.J And, as we understand from the Holy Koran, if Moslems stand united, acts of aggression can in no way infiltrate among them and usurp their rights. Again, I quote from the Holy Koran: "They will do you no harm, barring a trifling an- noyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help sh~ll they get." [Ibid., verse Ill.} 103. We have not mentioned all the innumerable crimes committed by Zionist Israel, since many of them are abundantly clear to all the people of the world. However, we have to bring to the attention of all countries the most recent crime of the barbaric Zionist regime, its criminal excavation of the immediate area surrounding one of the holiest shrines of Islam, in occupied Jerusalem. We warn the Zionists not to toy with the most sacred beliefs of the Moslem people, and once again we urge all Moslems of the world to join the united Islamic front in combating Zionist aggression in order to bring about a just Islamic solution to this tragic issue. 104. We ask all countries to terminate all their political, economic and cultural ties with the aggressor, Israel, in order to demonstrate to it that aggression does not pay. We also ask all Moslem countries to continue to resist Israeli aggression and, in compliance with Islamic ideals, to :efrain from any form of compromise until final vic- tory is achieved. 105. I would like to present as a gift to my Palestinian brothers and sisters this quotation from the Holy Koran, which we believe provides the best guidance for them in their struggle against Zionism: 113. Faced with this attempt at the "de-Arar: ~\)n" of "If God helps you, none can overcome you: If He Palestine by means of an infernal war machin~ IJ a po- forsakes you, who is there, after that, that can help lice apparatus skilled in terrorism, the Palestinian people' you? In God, then, let Believers put their trust." [Ibid., is exercising its legitimate right to resort to liberating vio- verse 160.] . lence.. It is precisely that national liberation struggle 107. Although the question of Palestine is now recog- nized as being the core of the Middle East conflict, the Palestinian people had to make many sacrifIces over more than a quarter of a century before the international com- munity departed from an erroneous approach whereby the origin of the crisis was considered to be its effects, to wit the multiple consequences of the Zionist acts of aggres- sion against the neighbouring Arab countries. In point of fact, the debates and the results of the twenty-ninth ses- sion of the General Assembly marked a turning-point. ·108. By proclaiming the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, sovereignty and independence, the General Assembly endorsed the hp-roic struggle of a peo- ple. By granting observer status to the PLO the Assembly at !he same time recognized the fact that the PLO was the sole representative of the Palestinian people and approved its mission, won in the heat of battle, to take part in any quest for a just and definitive solution to the Middle East crisis. 109. Since then, developments in the situation have con- stantly aroused the legitimate concern of the international community. The Israeli leaders continue in their expan- sionist designs, based upon a permanent policy of aggres- sion in complete contempt of United Nations decisions. Extremely serious manoeuvres have been carried out in order to wipe out the successes achieved in the cause of the Palestinian people. 1kO. Thus, seven years after the international commu- nity came to its senses and. undertook to do justice at long last to the people of Palestine, developments in the situation present the disturbing feature of the Security Council's failure to meet the persistent challenge of the Zionist entity. By failing to heed the repeated calls of the General Assembly and by failing to stand finn against the continued acts of defiance of the Zionist entity, the Se- curity Council certainly bears a heavy responsibility for the present stalemate. 111. The difficulties encountered in implementing the international consensus on the settlement of the question of Palestine are the result of an avowed intent to liquidate the Palestinian people. In occupied Palestine as well as in the surrounding areas, a relentless attempt is being made to deny the right of the Palestinian people to live. ~n the ..'alestinian and Arab occupied territories the Zionist entity is systematically extending its settlements by resorting to a mindless repression against all the Arab peoples in the area, who have become virtual hostages in their own land. Il2. The annexation of Al Quds, the attempts to annex the Golan Heights, the dismemberment of LebanC'!t, the recent aggression against Iraq and the plan to build aca- nal linking the Mediterranean with the Dead Sea through the occupied territories ?ll serve to keep the adventurist policy of the Zionist leaders in the forefront. 114. The impasse in which the mistaken Camp David peace attempt finds itself today was to be expected, since it was based on a denial of the national rights of the Pal- estinian people. Over and above the broad current of uni- versal condemnation which that initiative aroused, its failure resulted primarily from the reaction of the Arab masses in the occupied territories, who proclaimed, in the face of the Zionist occupation forces, their rejection of the Camp David accords and their determination to build their own State under the guidance of the PLO, their sole and legitimate representative. 115. The streng~hening of the Palestinian popular re- sistance demonstrates more and PQre every day the re- fusal of the Palestinian people to give up control of its national destiny. In other words, no subterfuge can con- tain the determination of th~ Palestinian people to be free, and no solution is possible without the restoration of its national ~overeignty. Furthermore, that was the conclusion which the General Assembly reached when in resolutions 34/65 B and 35/169 B it declared null and void agreements which ignore, infringe, violate or deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of self-determination and thL rfrght to national independence and sovereignty in Palestine. Although the accords have thus been acknowledged a failure, the Camp Dav:'~ pro- tagonists have not learned the proper lessons. 116. The recently announced strategic alliance agree- ments between the United States and the Zionist entity and the joint military manoeuvres in the region are part of a carefully developed plan whose ultimate goal is to bring the entire Middle East under imperialist influence. It is precisely the combination of imperialist interests and the sinister designs of Zionist ideology in the region which perpetuates the crisis and foils all attempts by the United Nations to restore the national rights of the Palestinian people. Because of its geo-strategic function in the re- gion, the Zionist entity enjoys the protection and support of imperialism, which simultaneously guarantees it im- punity and greater potential for aggression. 117. The question of Palestine, whose solution has been too long delayed, calls now more than ever for greater determination by the international community to dis.:harge its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people. 118. Here it is fitting to pay a well-deserved tribute to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its Chairman, Mr. Mas- samba Sal,·re of Senegal. Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 3236 (XXIX), the Committee suggested prac- tical measures to allow the Palestinian people ,effectively to exercise its right to self-determination, independence and national sovereignty in Palestine. 119. Because the Security Council, paralyzed by an abusive use of one veto, failed in its duty to implement the recommendations of the Committee, as endorsed by the General Assembly, the seventh emergency special ses- sion was convened. With the solemnity conr~rred on it by its exceptional nature, that special session strongly en- dorsed the inalienable n~tional rights of the Palestinian people and declared invalid the Camp David accords and other similar arrangements. 121. That new solemn expression of international con- sensus on the only way to find a settlement of the Ques- tion of Palestine was thwarted by the stubborness of the Zionist entity and, unfortunately, the willingness of its al- lies to guarantee unconditional support for its policy. 122. Our present debate is a response to yet another loud appeal by the mart:;red Palestinian people to us all. Over and above the expression of an ever-stronger soli- darity, coherent action is essential. Such action is all the more necessary because the mere denunciation of the mis- deeds of the Zionist entity seems to encourage it to per- sist in its defiance of the international community, rather than having the slightest deterrent effect on it. 123. The United Nations has undertaken a commitment to guarantee the Palestinian people the exercise of its right to self-determination. By honouring such a commitment the United Nations will discharge the immense debt that it contracted with respect to justice and right. It will at the same time be carrying out its mission of working for the establishment of peace in the Middle East-a compre- hensive peace, which will not be brought about unless the fundamental requirement of the restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, independence and sovereignty in Palestine is met.

Since 1948 the Palestinian people has been the victim of a terrible tragedy, a tragedy that is almost unique in the modem history of the peoples of the world. The reason for that tragedy, as everyone knows, is that that people was the victim of a Zionist, colonialist plot which, during a first stage, divided up their homeland and then chased the real inhabitants from the occupied lands, thus impos- ing extremely difficult conditions on them for more than a third of a century. Those who remain in their occupied homeland, Palestine, have been subjected to iniquitous laws and procedures stemming from the occupation which has deprived them of their most elementary political, so- cial and human rights. Terrorism, discrimination, racism, massacres have been inflicted on them. 125. The barbaric and hideous actions and criminal methods of the leaders of the Zionist movement, who in- vaded Palestine from all the European countries before the occupation, demonstrate clearly their inhuman Nazi ten- dencies. The best known of these leaders is without any doubt Menachem Begin, the present Prime Minister of the Zionist entity. That man's history and his political life, marked by crime, massacre and destruction, are very clear proof of the aims of these leaders who came to the land of Palestine from abroad. 126. Begin was one of the important members of what was called at the time the freedom party. In its organiza- 127. On 4 December 1948, The New York Times, an American newspaper, published a message from Jewish leaders in the United States, from which I quote: '~mong the most disturbing phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created State of Israel of the 'Freedom Party'.* 128. It is very surprising to see a large number of American citizens, with a good reputation as patriots, welcoming Menachem Begin. They declared their support for him during his most recent visit to the United States, which he made for the purpose of obtaining the greatest support for his party and for himself in the scheduled Israeli elections, which took place only a few months ago. 129. It is really difficult to understand how those who have always worked against fascism throughout the world can lend assistance to Begin and his movement, with all the criminal acts they carry out. Indeed, the scope of that movement is unequalled by any other Fascist party. Proof of this is the deeds done in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin. The butchery of human beings carried out at that time reflects the morality and conduct of this "freedom party" led by Menachem Begin today. That party has launched fanatical religious and extremist chauvenistic propaganda campaigns, constantly reaffirming the idea of racial superiority. Begin's allegations of his love for de- mocracy and other humanit<U"ian principles cannot wipe out these repugnant fac..ts or make us forget his record and that of his party, and their actions in Palestine-actions of which no other party in the world has ever been guilty. This Fascist party has practised terrorism and violence not only against Palestinian inhabitants but -against anyone- Jew, Arab or British-not believing in the stated aim: the sovereignty of the Zionist State. 130. All those who cherish peace, security and freedom in the world have the duty to work sincerely and fruitfully to unmask the real nature of this party and its leadership, represented by Begin, in .the entire world and t'articularly in the United States. It is truly disheartening to see the Zionist leaders in the United States-despite all the trustworthy information available to them on what Begin and his Fascist party really represent-refusing to take any action or engage in any activity whatever against Be- gin's policy and his criminal efforts and attitude, or to unmask the dangers that these practices entail for the fu- ture of the Jews, inside and outside the occupied territory. Begin's partisans continue, with great enthusiasm, to sup- port him and his Fascist policy. 131. One very important and positive initiative in this respect was a message signed and published by Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook, Simon SelJ.man, Hannah Arendt and others, which revealed a large number of significant truths about Begin and his party and called on all parties concerned to abstain from giving any support to this Fas- cist movement led by Begin. But we ask ourselves what effect that initiative had in awakening Americans and making them aware of what the facts are about Begin and his fascism and racism and about the dangers of the_sup- port given to him and his party by the United States. 133. Indeed, the United States recently signed with Israel an agreement based on the policy of expansion and aggression, for Israel believes that its existence is based essentially on the destruction of Palestine and of its Arab people. Begin signed that strategic agreement a very short time after the J~raeli air attack on the Iraqi nuclear in- stallations and after having killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Lebanon and destroyed a large part of Beirut. 134. .Expressions of sympathy, regret or condemnation by the Reagan Admi1i'lstration at the time of the Israeli aggression against the Iraqi reactor and against Lebanon were aimed at misleading opinion, because it is clear that all the combat aircraft and all the weapons used by Israel against the Arab States and the Palestinian fighters are, in fact, American aircraft and weapons offered to Israel from time to time by the United States Government at no cost. It is clear also that Israel could never have commit- ted such acts of aggression with;Jut the assistance and support of the United States. 135. Despite all the advice continually given to the United Slates leaders by friends that it should adhere to the values and principles in which the American people believe, these leaders seem fated to commit the same er- rors and the same sins against the PaleS[Uilarl reople and the Arab nation. Furthermore, these errors become more serious every time a new American Administration is elected. 136. In the last three decades there has been a descend- ing curve of Americ~n opposition to the Zionist move- ment OLld its influen ov~r -e United States Administra- tion. Given that weakness, the Zionist Israeli leaders evidence an unbridled desire to increase their control, in- fluence and hegemony over that Administration, to the ex- tent of establishing legal bases in Washington. 137. The disinformation spread by the Israeli occupation authorities is taken at face value by the United States Ad- ministration. The American media, continuously aligned with Israeli positions, especially under the Reagan Ad- ministration, provide further proof of this. 138. President Reagan has said that he does not consider illegal the Israeli settlements in the occupied Arab territo- ries in the West Bank and that he would prefer Jerusalem to be "unified" under Israeli domination. This is in rfIagrant contradiction with the official position adopted by -the United States 011 the question of Israeli settlements and the illegal annexation of Jerusalem. 139. On the other hand, that attitude is in conformity with the successive allegations of Zionist leaders who claim that the Palestinian nation and the Palestinian peo- ple do not exist. Twelve years ago Golda Meir, then Fjme Minister of the Zionist entity, said in an important statement that the Palestinian people did not exist, that, 140. As for Mrs. Kirkpatrick, the United States repre- sentative, she .is opposed to the existence of the 'Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Mfecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territo- ries. While the majority of the international community approved the establishment of that Committee, Mrs. Kirkpatrick has recently made some statements and writ- ten some articles completely consonant with the Zionist logic that has been rejected by the United Nations and by all the peoples of the world struggling against colo- nialism, discrimination and racism. 141. During the Security Council debate last June on the Zionist aggression against the Iraqi nuclear installa- tions, Mrs. Kirkpatrick said that Iraq's refusal to recog- nize two earlier resolutions of the Council, 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), was an important factor in the considera- tion of Israel's attack on Iraq. It was as if she wanted us to recognize the Zionist occupation of all the Palestinian territory and of the territories of three other Arab States in exchange for a guarantee. of avoidance of aggression against Iraq. Her opinions would provide a justification for aggression by any State against another State on the pretext that the latter refused to recognize a United Na- tions resolution. 142. We have a question to put to Mrs. Kirkpatrick: What does she think of a State that has rejected dozens of resolutions of the Security Counci~, the General Assembly and various committees? What does she think of a coun- try like Israel that each day defies the international com- munity, deliberately disregards· its will and shows con- tempt for international practice and international law? 143. The opposition of the United States to the exis- tence of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Prac- tices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population in the Occupied Territories is exactly the same as the opposition to the existence of an international committee elected at Nuremberg because it disregarded the condition of 110,000 American citizens of Japanese origin who had been removed by force from their land and transferred to other places or to concentration camps for the duration of the war, simply because of their race. This strange logic is very surprising; it has no acceptable basis. Yet it was advanced by President Reagan in defence of the treach- erous Camp David agreements and to denigrate the Pal- estinian people and disavow the rights of the Arab States that have rejected Camp David and its unjust agreements. 144. In recent years several peace plans have been born. They have all been doomed to failure because of the posi- tion of the Zionists, who continue to refuse to withdraw 145. Why, then, have the Israelis now accepted the Camp David agreements? The reason, as can easily be seen, is that the Camp David framework "for peace" is the first plan that has made it legitimate for the Israeli leaders to annex the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and legally to deny the national rights of the Palestinians to their territory and their homeland. For example, the Camp David documents make no allusion to the inad- missibility of annexation of the territories of others by means of war, but they confirm the security of all the States of the region. The Camp David agreementS' omit the provision in Security Council resolution 242 (1967) calling for the withdrawal of Israeli troops, but they con- firm the necessity of putting an end to the hostility among the States of the region and confirm the right of those States to live in peace within secure and recognized borders. Resolution 242 (1967) is an unjust resolution in so .far as the rights of the Palestinian people are con- cerned; the Camp David agreements intentionally change that resolution for the benefit of Israel's colonialist and expansionist aims in the region. But the claim is made, wrongly and fals~ly, that these treacherous agreements are based solely on that Security Council resolution. 146. Iraq, in calling on the Arab nation to oppose the Camp David agreements, was motivated by its 'unshakable conviction and its clear perception that those agreements amounted only to recognition of aggression and occupa- tion and to surrender to the Zionist enemy and recogni- tion of the legitimacy of its occupation of Palestine and the territories of three other Arab States. At the same time, those accords constitute a denial of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and its just struggle to regain those rights. 147. Iraq has in the past firmly opposed any suspicious initiatives the objective of which has been to liquidate the Palestinian question. It will continue to oppose any plan that disregards the inaljenable national rights of the Pal- estinian people, struggling for its total independence, its sovereignty, its right to self-determination on its own land. 148. Iraq is a freedom-loving country which believes in peace based on justice. It seeks and promotes just solu- tions guaranteeing all the inalienable rights of the parti~s to the conflict. It is thus evident that it will welcome any initiative designed to ensure cpmplete recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation, rights acknowledged by the international community and confirmed by legal and historic facts. 149. The Zionist danger is to be seen not only in the total absorption of Palestinian territory and the territories of three other Arab States, nor only in the constant Zionist expansionism and the repeated Zionist acts of aggression against Lebanon, its violations of Saudi Arabian and Jor- danian airspace, its brutal aggression against the Iraqi nu- clear installations last June. That danger has taken con- crete form in the Zionist. entity's alliance with another racist regime which has the same fanatical basis and the same expansionist ideology: I am referring to Khomeini's charlatan regime. The Zionist authorities have begun to provide that racist regime with weapons and other war 150. Everyone is of course aware that a few months ago an Argentine aircraft crashed in Soviet territory after hav- ing delivered some weapons to Teheran. Although the Ira- nian authorities have tried to deny this military co-opera- tion with the Zionist entity, the president of what is called the Consultative Assembly, Rafsanjani, admitted on 25 November-as reported by the Kuwait Press Agency, on the basis of a broadcast by Radio Teheran-that there was co-operation between the two regimes in regard to the supply of weapons. The Agency reported that during a meeting of the High Council for National Defence of Iran, Rafsanjani claimed that his country's purchases of military equipment from the Zionist entity were in reim- bursement for an earlier Israeli debt. He went on to say that his regime did not really want the debt to be paid by the Zionist entity through the supply of weapons, but that the High Council for National Defence had decided dur- ing a meeting to take these weapons from the Zionist en- tity but not to reveal the amount of money due, the kind of weapons furnished by Tel Aviv or the way in which the operation had been concluded. 151. We in Iraq were not at all surprised by this sus- picious collusion between those two regimes-those of Iran and of the Zionist entity. We learned of it right away. Moreover, we finnly believe that the racist and expansion- ist character of the two regimes and their backward, right- ist leaders are important factors which they !'!2ve exploited to establish the alliance between them. 152. Israel occupies the neighbouring territories; the Khomeini regime continues to occupy three Arab islands, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, and it has not to this day shown any intention of withdrawing fror.: them. The Begin regime arrests thousands of Palestinian fighters and subjects them to all forms of torture; the Khomeini regime has in its prisons tens of thousands of citizens who had been arrested for resisting the regime of the Shah and who thus had been in the vanguard of the revolutionaries who brought about his downfall. 153. h'aq, with its courageous soldiers, its people's army and its people's ITIilitia, is fighting today under the command of President S3ddam Hussein, that well-known, courageous Arab warrior, to turn back Khomeini's at- tempts to occupy our territory, destroy our villages and massacre innocent citizens. We shall continue the fight until Khomeini gives in to reality and gives up his ar- rogance, his aggression and his expansionist and racist at- titude and recognizes o~r legitimate rights and those of the other Arab States. 154. I think it is appropriate here to remind the Assem- bly what Lord Caradon said in 1979 about the Camp David agreements, in his "Report on the Middle East": "We were surprised when we finally understood that the fears had been allayed by the separate peace agree- ments between Israel and Egypt, other questions having been laid aside." 157. The aim of Begin's statements, the Zionist policy in the occupied Palestinian territories and the repeated acts of aggression against the Palestinian people in Lebanon is very clear: the total and lasting domination of the territo- ries that have fallen under Israel's yoke. The American leaders, instead of admitting the facts and the evidence and then trying to settle the problem, are obstinately con- "Another fact is coming to light: Prime Minister tinuing to give unlimited assistance to Israel, encouraging Menachem Begin has started to make a series of public it in its acts of aggression and expansion. They also con~ By "other questions" Lord Caradon meant the future of the Palestinians and that of Jerusalem. He continued: He said also, as reported in the American press, that "on 12 September 1978 Begin made a statement hostile to the Palestinians, saying that there would be no referendum on the West Bank or on the Gaza Strip, that there would never be a Palestinian State, whatever the conditions, and that there would never be any agreement or contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization. " Lord Caradon concluded, "Those statements clearly show the duplicity involved in the promise that has been given-that is, autonomy for the Palestinians". Lord Car- adon went even further, saying he believed that the Camp David agreements and the other agreements following them were only a subterfuge and a trick so far as the establishment of a lasting peace was concerned and that no one was interested allY more. 155. The former United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mr. James Akins, said in an interview published in Arab Perspective in July 1980: "The President believes that Camp David is a contin- uous process, a step towards the peace he desires. He is determined that this should be so and is not willing to admit the errors which people are telling him about. He told me that as a result of the Camp David (lgree- lT}ents there would be no more Israeli settlements on the West Bank or the Gaza Strip." The very same day, during a speech in New York, Begin called the President a liar saying: "We shall continue to establish settlements. We shall continue the annexation of the West Bank. Anyone who claims that there has been a change in the policy of the Israeli Government is implying that that policy is in- consistent." 156. President Carter was humiliated by Begin after that statement was made. Mr. Akins, in the same interview, said, "President Carter speaks of the autonomy of the West Bank, but everybody knows what is meant by 'au- tonomy'''. When the definition was given by the Israelis for the first time, I compared it to that of the South Af- rican bantustans. That aroused some rather harsh criticism from Israel and its supporters. But when Begin gave his definition of autonomy, I presented my apologies to South Africa, because it became clear that the bantustans in South Africa probably had more freedom and indepen- dence than the West Bank under what is called "auton- omy"

The cause of the people of Palestine has become one of the permanent problems on the agenda of the Organization. 159. We are today meeting here again to discuss the question of PalesJine, as those before us have been doing since 1948. This question is as old as the United Nations itself. 160. The United Nations has lived with this question since its own inception, as did the League of Nations be- fore it, because it is one of the thorniest issues demanding a just solution, and its continuance constitutes a heavy burden on the conscience of all humanity because of its great threat to international peace and security. 161. In its 35 years of existence this body has left no stone unturned in order to ease tensions in the Middle East. Resolutions have been adopted based on principles of justice and peace, only to remain on paper while there in the arena of conflict Zionist Israel applies racism and the law of the jungle with impunity, using violellce, bru- tality and terrorism and contemptuously defying world public opinion and all the laws and principles upheld by civilized humanity. 162. Indeed, since its admission to the United Nations in 1949 and although it entered into a commitment to observe the rules of the Organization, Israel has ridden roughshod over everything that does not accord with its own ambitions and interests, that is to say, its expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates. It is not content with the territory it obtained under resolution 181 (Il) of 29 November 1947, which partitioned Palestine. It seeks to expand further by means of wars of aggression. 163. If the question of P-:lestine has not found a solu- tion up to this very day and continues to elude any com- prehensive solution by the United Nations, it is not be- cause of any lack of effort by this body, but mainly because Israel has persistently refused to comply with its resolutions and recommendations. 164. There can be very little new to say on an issue that has been debated for the last 33 years, and having heard the brilliant expose of the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Mr. Massamba Sarre of Senegal [80th meeting], and that of the Head of the Political Department of the PLO, Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi [ibid.], who have catalogued the various new crimes and aggressions committed by Zionist Israel against the Arab people, my delegation has very little to add except to reiterate the basic position of the Government of the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros concerning this question, a position that has been presented on various occasions and may be summa- rized as follows. 166. My Government also rejects the annexation of Arab Jerusalem, a matter of deep concern to two billion Moslems and Christians. For us, that city has historical and spiritual significance. It is a symbol of peace and harmony, and we therefore cannot agree to its present sta- tus, which is based on hatred, selfishness and usurpation without regard to legality or legitimacy. 167. Last but not least, the Government of the Comoros condemns the recent attack by Zionist Israel on Tamuz and its repeated acts of aggression against Leb'mon.

For some 30 years the Palestinian people have known little else but torment and despair in their daily lives and have woken up many mornings only to find their innocent blood mixed with the debris of their camps. Now, this international forum is once again called into session to deliberate on the ques- tion of Palestine, a question that has for too long affected and for too long afflicted the life and destiny of an entire people, the Palestinian people. It is a problem that has in the recent past led to four major wars in the Middle East but which has remained unresolved and which today en- gages the entire region, with even greater danger and ten- sion disturbing world peace. 169. With every day and every year that passes, not only has the agony and tragedy of the Palestinian people increased and become more and more unbearable, but the entire region of the Middle East itself has become the receptacle for increased and sophisticated weaponry that is fast transforming the entire region into a lethal powder- keg that might one day explode, with deadly conse- quences for the entire region and its peoples and perhaps for the whole world. Thus, the need to find a comprehen- sive and just solution to this problem has never been more urgent, has never been more self-evident. 170. The Sierra Leone delegation does not consider this debate ritualistic; on the contrary, for us it represents a reaffirmation of our determination to find a just and com- prehensive solution to the Palestinian problem. It also af- fords us an opportunity to uphold, reaffirm and imple- ment the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people-, rights denied them unjustly and unfairly, and for too 171. The Head of the Political Department of the PLO, Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi, addressing the Assembly earlier in this debate, complained that at the current session the question of Palestine would have completed its thirty-sixth year at the United Nations. He went on to state that every year we meet here once, and sometimes twice or more, to debate, discuss and formulate resolutions and adopt them by an overwhelming majority. Those resolutions are then deposited with the Secretariat, while his people wait for them to be implemented, but to no avail. It is such an attitude of inactivity, I dare say, that not only harms the just cause of the Palestinian people but entails serious consequences for the authority of the United Nations and its ability and willingness to maintain world peace. 172. It has become the standard practice of the repre- sentative of Israel, like that of the racist regime in Pre- toria, to accuse the members of the Assembly of partiality whenever the question of Palestine o-r the Middle East is discussed in this forum. By dint of such unfounded accu- sations, Israel hopes that it will escape members that the General Assembly, in resolution 181 (11), partitioned Pal- estine into a Jewish State, a Palestinian Arab State and a corpus separatum for the city of Jerusalem, but that con- trary to that resolution and to a solution of the tragedy of the Palestinian people, the international community has been able to witness 'only the partial implementation of that resolution, with the creation of Israel in 1948 and all the dire consequences that have followed for the Palestin- ian people. 173. Since its cfC;;ation, Israel has embarked on a policy of deliberately usurping the inalienable right of the Pal- estinian people to self-determination and independence, and in the course of the past 33 years it has occupied the entire territory that was Palestine under the Mandate. In addition, it is carrying out a policy of territorial aggran- dizement, to the detriment of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. It is because such policie[ are not only inimical to the Palestinian people but also immoral and manifestly illegal that they have revolted the conscience of mankind and of, the overwhelming majority of the membership of the. Organization. 174. The acquisition of territory by conquest is illegal, and no amount of legal chicanery or persuasion could confer legality on this illegal act. Security Council resolu- tion 242 (1967) does not and cannot confer legality, and if it had attempted to do so, either through ambiguity or interpretation, it would have been intrinsically void ab in- itio even without the objection of the Palestinian people 175. It is against this background and not from any other motive that Sierra Leone, and I dare say the over- whelming majority of the membership of the Organiza- tion, has called for the implementation of General Assem- bly resolution 181 (11), for the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian State on the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip and in East Jerusalem. 176. Consequently, and in the view of my Government, the notion of some form of Israeli-enforced autonomy for the Palestinians is as incomprehensible as it is insupporta- ble, for nothing short of an independent Palestinian State in fulfilment of the Palestinian people's imprescriptible right of self-determination will put an end to their agony and destruction of life and property and the continued danger to international peace and security posed by the persistence of the problem. Furthermore, such enforced autonomy bypasses the central issue of the Middle East problem, which is essentially the question of the national State of the Palestinian people. My Government also finds incomprehensible and insupportable in law, logic or mo- rality, or indeed in the paramount interests of peace, the continued annexation of Jerusalem by Israel and the main- tenance thereof of its capital. Such a policy only sets back the process of peace. 177. My Government, therefore, again calls upon Israel to have the courage, the determination and the basic hu- manity to let the Palestinian people have what was granted to them 34 years ago, namely, the right to self- determination and to a State of their own, within which they would be able to mould and shape their own destiny. My Government is finn in its belief that the implementa- tion of resolution 181 (11), in all its various facets, will enable the confli~ting national aspirations involved to find substantial expression and qualify both peoples to take their places as independent nat~ons in the international community and in the United Nations. 178. In conclusion, the Sierra Leone Government takes this opportunity to reaffirm Its support for the inalienable rights of the PalestiniaR people, including the right to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty and to return to their homes and property, from which they were displaced and uprooted. My Government also reaffirms its recognition of the Palestinian people as a principal party in the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and the PLO as their authentic representative.

The question of Palestine remains one of the major sources of international tension and conflict in the world today. Unlike any other area of tension, the situation in the Middle East presents the world..vith the immediate danger of a global war, be- cause the super-Powers have a direct and vital interest in that strategic area. It is a complex and difficult problem, the solution of which calls for a display of great and imaginative statesmanship. 180. It is easy enough to outlir..e the ba£ic elements of the question of Palestine.First~ it is the contention of my Government that the claim of the people of Palestine to their own homeland is legitimate and just. The situation now prevailing is that the people of Palestine have been unjustly deprived of their homeland. They have been ~e- 181. Secondly, peact has eluded the Middle East be- cause the direct interests of the people of Palestine have not been taken into account in all previous attempts to resolve the problem. We believe that any negotiations for a settlement which does not take into account the quest of the people of Palestine for a homeland is bound to fail. For this reason it is essential that the PLO, which is rec- ognizedby the United Nations as the legitimate represen- tative of the people of Palestine, be included in any future negotiations on the question of Palestine. To do otherwise would be like playing "HamJet" ;.ithout the Prince. 182. Thirdly, it is our conviction that there are other Powers with legitimate interests in the area and that those Powers also have a vital role in the solution of the conflict in the Middle East. In this connection, we believe that the European initiative of June 1930 for a comprehensive Middle East peace conference, which failed to gain mo- mentum, deserves serious attention. Neither super-Power acting entirely on its own or in conjunction with any of its allies is capable of solving this tragic conflict. In addi- tion. other Arab countries with a legitimate interest in the issue should participate in such a conference, without which the tension in the area will continue. 183. With regard to the policies of Israel, the position and views of my Government have been clearly stated in the past. First, we fully support the demand for the with- drawal Qf Israel from all occupied Arab land. There can be no partial withdrawal. Israel will have to withdraw completely and simultaneously from all occupied Arab land in accordance with General Assembly resolution ES-7/2. Furthermore, we deplore and strongly condemn the creation on the West Bank of Jewish settlements in breach of both Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on this question. This has exacerbated the sit- uation in the Middle East and has added further difficul- ties to a situation that is grave and difficult enough. 184. In addition, my Government strongly deplores the inhuman and degrading treatment being meted out by the Israeli forces to the people of Palestine, particularly on the West Bank. It is incomprehensible that a people that suffered so much at the hands of Nazi Germany should now inflict the same treatment on others who had nothing to do with Jewish suffering. 185. Israel's purported annexation of Jerusalem remains an affront, a sore point not only with the Arabs but with Islamic people everywhere. So is its continuous desecra- tion of the Holy Places in Jerusalem, a desecration which we condemn strongly. 186. What can be done now? It is my Gover~ment's view that a durable. negotiated settlement should contain the following elements. First, a peace conference should involve all Powers with a legitimate interest in the ques- tion. The European proposalS are. for that reason, accept- able to my Government. Secondly. any settlement arrived 187. Before concluding I should like to pay a warm, personal tribute to my dear brother and colleague, the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the In- alienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Mr. Massamba Sarre of Senegal, for his untiring efforts to resolve the problem of Palestine.

I caJI_~n the 01:>~erver of the ,l.eague of Arab States, in conformity with General Assembly resolution 477 (V).

The debate on the question of Pal- estine in the General Assembly has become an occasion for the international community to affirm its commitment to the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, its un- conditional condemnation of Israel's violation of those rights and its total rejection of Israeli practices, including the incessant and increasing excesses in the occupied Arab territories. 190. The debate also affords the international· commu- nity an opportunity to expose the behaviour of the Zionist entity for what it is-a carbon copy of the actions of all racists, Fascist and colonialist regimes of contemporary history. Indeed, this debate goes in accurate detail into the new dimensions that Israel has added to the abhorrent policy of colonialist settlements and racial discrimination, as the report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People [A/36/35] makes so vividly clear. The community of nations, through the current debate, has a chance to discover the magnitude of Israel's attempts to achieve its aggressive, expansionist aims, and to realize the dangers inherent in those objectives, a realization that should confirm the conviction that Israel's policies and actions constitute a real threat to peace. 191. Moreover, the debate is proof of the international community's determination that any review of the Palestin- ian case must centre on the fact that that issue is the core and root cause of the conflict in the Middle East and. that no solution is possible unless the Palestinians are guaranteed their legitimate national rights and are assured of the opportunity to decide their own destiny, including the establishment of an independent State in their home- land. 192. The General Assembly also has an opportunity to clarify various positions and to highlight the isolation not only of those who assist, directly or otherwise, Israel's objectives in the region, but of those who are not firm towards Israel. Israel interprets that attitude as a licence to persist in its violations of the sovereignty of the Arab States, in its· scorched-earth policies. its annexation of land and its harsh repression of the rights and liberties of the Palestinians under its occupation. 193. The debate on the question of Palestine. finally, brings the international community face to face with 194. Zionist ideology rests on the thesis that the ends justify the means until Israel accomplishes all its objec- tives. As long as those aims remain unrealized, Israel is not prepared to heed, much less obey, any international resolutions or views, even those supported by its few re- maining allies. 195. Israel not only refuses to be accountable to any authority in the world but acts as if the world must be accountable to it. This arrogance is a natural reflection of Zionist thinking, which at one and the same time defines Israeli behaviour and absolves Israel of any international, legal or humanitarian responsibilities or responsibilities to civilization. This pernicious ideology, in fact, has imbued Israel with the belief that the larger Zionist entity, whose parameters have yet to be fixed, must be established at all costs. So far those costs inchlde the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, aggression against the Arab States, disregard for international law and the Charter of the United Nations and violation of the Universal Decla- ration of Human Rights and United Nations resolutions, not to mention brazen rebuffs to world public opinion and even to Israel's own few supporters. 196. Moreover, the Zionist concept of discriminating be- tween Jews and the rest of mankind and the insistence that such discrimination is necessary and permanent rein- force Israel's determination to establish a system that by definition is antithetical to all humanistic, organic, secular and rational ideas of nationalism. Zionism emphasizes for the Jew the reality of alienation, but, like anti-Semitism, it transforms the differences between the Jew and the rest of mankind into hard evidence of the inevitable separation of the two. Thus, Zionists come to perceive non-Jews not only as "other", but also, in varying degrees, as adver- saries, even enemies. 197. That is why Israel and the Zionist movement re- gard any questioning of, or scepticism about, these ac- tions as indications of hostility and evidence of antag- onism to their objectives. It is as if Israel were telling the world: "You are in the dock and, to the extent that you remain silent about Israeli actions Israel will not take um- brage at your hostility; and as long as you-the world- do not impede the achievement of Zionist objectives, Is- rael will try to coexist with the rest of the world". Israel, in effect, is offering the world two choices: helping it achieve all its aims or, failing that, abandoning any role in the conflict between Israel and those who resist its ob- jectives, its aggression, its expansionism, its racism and its very being. 198. In other words, Israel predicates its relationship with the international community on its continuing ability to blackmail the nations of the world and to perceive them as hostages to its threats. Such an attitude permits Israel to scorn international resolutions and opinion, to persist in insulting the United Nations, as the represen- tative of Israel did from this rostrum, by preventing the enforcement of its decisions and to destroy the credibility of United Nations organs when they are assigned even limited roles in this regard. 200. Zionism, by its deliberate separatism, its disdain for shared values and its refusal to comply with interna- tional laws, forces upon the international community the need to understand Zionist tenets and motives, as well as the circumstances of the growth of zionism and its perma- nence. It is impossible to separate Israeli behaviour from Zionist ideology, because Israel is the prodw;:t and instru- ment of zionism, and Israel's intransigence can be under- stood only in the context of the racist, segregationist and isolationist concepts of zionism. In this will be found the reason why Israel treats the Palestinians in their own homeland as if they were human obstacles to the realiza- tion of Zionist aims in all of Palestine. Israeli policy dic- tates that if the Palestinians stand in the way of Zionist interests, then they have to be removed by expulsion, dis- persion, persecution, terrorism or outright destruction. 201. The more the Palestinian people prove that their unity· is national and organic, the more intense the Zionists' determination becomes to remove Palestinians as impediments. In fact, Israel has reached an irrational stage in its attempts to prevent at all costs any affirmation of the Palestinian identit.y or achievement of Palestinian self-determination or the restoration of the national, juridical and natural rights of the Palestinians. But even Zionists are beginning to question some aspects of this irrational attitude in the face of the clear determination of the Palestinians to establish the validity of their existence and to regain their rights, all their rights. Zionism postu- lates that the Palestinians are prone to political extinction. Yet, despite their dispersion and the repression and ter- rorism they suffer under Israeli occupation, the Palestin- ians have proved their strength as a counter to that oc- cupation and have shown that they are able to mobilize their nationalism in ways that assure success for the Pal- estinian cause. 202. It is an irrefutable reality that the PLO is the framework of Palestinian unity and the source of lead- ership for the Palestinian struggle. That alone makes amply clear that the Palestinians are at the heart of the Middle East problem and that there can be no stability or peace in the region without guaranteeing all their rights without restriction. Indeed, in addition to the historical tasks it has shouldered. the PLO has become a force which restores to the region a balance that is valid, equi- table and logical. Moreover, the PLO today represents the effective answer to all Zionist attempts to eradicate the Palestinians as a people, so much so that the Zionists themselves are in disarray, thu~ permitting Israel's own extremists to hold sway and slam the door on any change that would lead to rational solutions. U3. As zionism sinksdeep~r into its historic dilemma, Israel becomes more and more prey to discord and esca- lates its aggression and its expansion, signalling a hidden fear of the reckoning that must come, as if aggression were a means of delaying the day when Israel must con- front itself. 205. These crises also serve to cover up the contradic- tions within Zionist ranks, thus seeking to preserve the lie that any criticism or condemnation of Zionist policies is a mortal danger to ISlael, which is advertised as the ulti- mate refuge for the world's Jev-s and as the guarantor of their continued existence as a people. 206. Zionism insists that Israel is qualified to represent the Jews of the world-historically, currently and in the future-and that it is the heir to Jewish destiny. Thus Is- rael's statehood rests in part on the alliance between zionism and the West, based on Western guilt towards the Jews. Under this arrangement, Israel absolves the West for what the West did, in varying degrees, to its own Jews in the past; in return, the West absolves Israel for its persecution, dispersion and repression of the Palestinians today and for what it plans to do to them later unless it is deterred. 207. This mutual absolution is one of the real obstacles preventing the West in general from translating its assess- ment of the Middle East crisis into policy and its correct reading of the issues into action. To some extent, this ex- plains why resolutions on the Palestinian question that have been endorsed by the majority of nations fail to win the support of the Western States. 208. The issue of mutual absolution and the attendant Western reluctance to move from consensus to resolution are exploited by Israel to intensify this duality in the West, and especially in the United States, between word and deed, between policy planning and execution and be· tween announced and actual positions. Hence the extraor- dinary western caution in dealing with Israeli excesses and the ambiguous condemnation of violence in general, when what is needed is a clear and categorical denuncia- tion of blatant Israeli aggression. 209. Perhaps the best example of this duality and confu- sion of judgement is the silence of some member States of the European Community, which under United States pressure, have expressed willingness to participate in the Sinai multinational force, about the humiliating conditions Israel is imposing on them. Their silence is the more pe- culiar because the projected Sinai force is part of the Camp David accords, which have been generally consid- ered ineffectual, even harmful, by the European Commu- nity. . 210. Israel, for its part, has turned the Camp David ac- cords into a veritable trap for those that touch them. It insists that deviation from the agreements disqualifies any party from participation in the search for a solution. Is- rael opposes European participation in the Sinai force on the basis that the European Community's Venice Declara- tion on the Middle East in 1980 disqualifies its members from any role in the crisis. 21 i. Yet the American Secretary of State, in a hurried meeting with Israeli officials on 27 November, assured Is- rael that giving the Camp David agreements some interna- 212. The Arab nations wonder whether the decision of the four European States to take part in the Sinai multina- tional force was an expression of a real desire to do so, or if they gav€' in to American pressure to cast an "interna- tional" mantle over the Camp David accords, which had been internationally rejected. It is clear that the participa- tion of some members of the European Community in .the Sinai force has been described in some Camp David quar- ters as the way for the Europeans to gain a role in solving the Middle East crisis. But what the members of the Eu- ropean Community may not realize is that the parties to the Camp David accords have already blocked any role for the Europeans in achieving any solution of the central issue in the Middle East, that is, the Palestinian question. 213. It is regrettable that the European Community should succumb to American pressure aimed at giving the Camp David accords a semblance of respectability through a European presence in the Sinai, especially since it indicates failure to consider the warnings conveyed by the League of Arab States to the leaders of the European Community as part of the Arab-European dialogue which we still hope will be fruitful. 214. We have told our friends in Europe-and we con- tinue to tell them-that whether their motives in seeking participation in the Sinai force stemmed from the nature of their strategic relationship with the United States or were based on the conviction that a European presence in the Sinai would facilitate a Middle Eastem role for the European Community later, they should consider this fact: their acceptance of the conditions of Israeli blackmail lands them in a trap and is certain to weaken their even~ tual role in the search for a solution and the credibility of any commitments that they may undertake now and in the future. 215. The Arab nation not only disapproves of the Euro- pean decision but finds it strange, coming as it does ffom countries with enough experience to avoid entanglement in the web of United States policies on the Middle East and to sidestep the trap Israel has devised cut of the. Camp David accords. Our warning stems not from an at- titude of confrontation with the· Western European coun- tries, but from a desire to preserve the dialogue between us and to strengthen our relations, as well as from our conviction that a European decision must be independent . to be effective. If their decision is linked directly or indi- rectly to the Camp David accords, it will in our eyes be devoid of value. credibility and seriousness. 216. If I have alluded to this issue in some detail it is only because I want to shed more light on the Israeli at- tempt to turn the Camp David accords into a trap de- signed to render ineffective any international force seek- ing to find a just and comprehensive solution for the Middle East crisis. Moreover, Israel has shown how it has used the accords to buy more time for its efforts to obfus- cate the issues. so that it can continue to block any pro- cess that does not confonn to its plans: 218. Do the Europeans think we do not notice this am- biguity? Should we interpret their seeming t.ilt towards the Camp David framework as the result of pressure or of conviction? If the countries of the European Community are as desirous as we are to preserve the dialogue between us, then they need to answer these questions. 219. Since we debated the question of Palestine at the thirty-fifth session, there have been important develop- ments in this issue. Apart from Israel's stubborn refusal to comply with the United Nations resolutions, its violation of international law and its persistent aggression, ~xpan­ sion and annexation, Israel has, in the period since the thirty-fifth session, attained a level of ferocity and barba- rism intensified further by new mett. )'~3 of violence and terrorism. 220. In spite of the condemnation by the international community by every means at its disposal, Israel has bombed Iraq's peaceful nuclear reactor, savagely attacked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, repeatedly violated Arab airspace, closed Bir Zeit University on the West Bank, intensified its repressive measures against Palestinian cit- izens by the wanton demolition of their homes and indis- criminate arrests and has kept up steady attacks against defenceless refugee camps. These are telling indications that Israel is determined to continue its policy of aggres- sion and to spare no effort to achieve its objectives, whether announced or hidden. 221. Israel arrogates to itself the right to act freely in any Arab territory targeted by zionism's grand design. That makes aggression inevitable, subject only to timing and opportunity. It also means that treachery has become a means for Israel, violence a method, and ambiguity a habit. 222. We see that whenever the international community exposes a facet of Zionist aims and designs, Israel reacts not only with a denial of what has been revealed but with a campaign of intellectual, political and diplomatic ter- rorism. This indicates that the increasing international un- derstanding of the nature and reality of Zionist objectives will precipitate an historic dilemma, which Israel wants to avoid while it tries to achieve its aims. 223. The General Assembly is well aware of the many insults Israel has heaped on the United Nations, its organs and its resolutions, and of the fact that Israel, by its shameless attacks on the international Organization. is tell- ing the world th"t it will not be bound by any resolutions. 224. By its habitual defiance of the General Assembly and its resolutions, Israel is also seeking to portray itself as a force with equal international legality. Indeed, it is trying to convince itself and its remaining friends and al- lies that it is able to hamper the United Nations and to erode its effectiveness and credibility. 225. We noted in an earlier de::>ate on the Palestinian question. during the thirty-fifth session [80th meeting]. the need to delve into the American-Israeli <..ollusion "The American hesitation about linking its practices to its beliefs makes it easier for Israel to get around American convictions and push the United States into adopting positions and practices that are often contrary to the convictions of the American decision-makers. "This pattern of American dealings with Israel leads the United States to adopt a position which formally condemns Israeli practices but which, in reality, sup- ports Israeli policies. Such action demonstrates the gap between the announced intentions of the United States and its actual policies". [Ibid., paras. 86 and 87.] 226. We have seen how Israel has paid hardly any atten- tion to United Nations resolutions. Indeed, the same be- haviour that drew condemnation in the past has prompted Israel to escalate its violation of the rights of the Palesti- nian people inside the occupied Arab territories and to intensify its wanton attacks-such as the bombing of Beirut-against more and more targets. In this regard and based on this premise, it is incumbent on the United Nations, in our view, not to stop at condemnation of Israel's acts but to fulfil its responsibility under the provi- sions of Chapter VII of the Charter to impose sanctions in order that the international community can implement its resolutions. If the sanctions provided for by the Ch~ter are th€ means of deterring the aggressor and forcing com- pliance with decisions taken, the United Nations cannot hesitate to resort to this option to ensure the implementa- tion of its resolutions. 227. We have tried to avoid repetitiveness in the debates on the Palestinian question, but Israel intends to aCC.Istom the world to the notion that its aggressive behaviour, its attacks and its repressive and terroristic I-olicies constitute a permanent and even rlatural condition. If the world ac- knowledged the inevitability of that policy, that would be an admission of helplessness in the face of aggression and of its inability to put a £top to it. 228. By its continuous defiance of United Nations reso- lutions and of international public opinion, Israel wants to force the world little by little to abandon the belief that the international community has an effective role to play in solving the crisis in the Middle East. In that sense, the Camp David accords were an attempt to divest the inter- national community of that role. Furthermore, the agree- ments have also become a protective shield for Israel and an instrument for aggression without fear of retaliation. ~ 229. In addition, the Camp David agreements are now used by Israel to justify its occupation of Arab lands, its expansion and its manoeuvres to create a fait accompli to achieve its Zionist objectives. 230. It is in this context that southern Lebanon remains an arena for Israeli acts of domination and disruption that enable it to invalidate Security Council resolutions provid- ing for the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty over' all the territory of Lebanon. especially that region. 232. This policy stems directly from Zionist ideology which seeks to reduce the Palestinians-now a united people aspiring to self-determination and to an indepen- dent State-to mere cast-offs of humanity in whatever land they happen to be, thus denuding them of their organic unity and identity. That is why Israel attempts to impose so-called autonomy on the Palestinians in the oc- cupied territories, which in reality is no more than irrele- vant adhliHistrative functions meant to block Palestinian basic rights. 233. These practices totally contradict the resolutions of the General Assembly, especially resolution 35/169 B. It is therefore imperative not only to reaffirm the Pdlestinian people's inalienable rights to self-determination and to es- tablish an independent State but to take urgent measures to put an end to Israel's violation of the spirit and the letter of those refolutions and to enforce them in a way conforming to th~ objectives of the General Assembly. 234. "Autonomy" and other such provisions of the Camp David accords are nothing but a ploy to buy time for Israel so that it can implant more settlerr ~nts in and impose greater restrictions on the occupied territories, with the aim of suppressing the elements of the Palestin- ian entity and turning occupied Palestine into an instru- ment of ludaization and of destroying Palestinian identity and nationalism. as has been done with the usurped part of Pdlestine. 235. Indeed, "autonomy" as devised in the Camp David agreements pre-empts the right of the Pdlestinian people to self-determination, independence and the exer- cise ef sovereignty in their own homeland. To claim that autonomy negotiations are a transitional phase is to ignore the basic Israeli position, which I\..jects the notion of a transition. In all the negotiations about autonomy that pre- ceded independence in numerous countries in Africa and elsewhere, the occupying or colonial authority conceded, even before the talks, the right of the country to indepen- dence after the end of the occupation. 236. However, Israel rejects from the start the premise that the Arab land under its yoke is occupied territory. On the contrary, Israeli officials have made it quite clear that the occupied areas are destined for annexation and that the question of Israeli sovereignty in those territories could be discussed in a few years, that is, after Israel has established a new reality that would make any discussion of sovereignty a simple and futile exercise in rhetoric. 237. How else are we to explain the fact that' Israel, while involved in autonomy negotiations, annexed more than 36 per cent of the occupied West Bank? What other explanations exist for Israel's action in annexing Jerusa- lem and declaring it its capital, when Jerusalem is recog- nized by the entire world as part of the occupied land? 238. Why, we ask, if Israel does not intend to seize these territories, are the Israeli authorities carrying out their policy of repression, which is clearly meant to de- populate PdIestinian towns and villages and to destroy 239. We do not want to dwell here on the details of what Israel has been doing in the occupied territories, but we definitely want to draw the world's attention to the fact that the other parties to the Camp David accords con- tinue to adhere to them despite the flagrant actions of the Israelis. 240. Is the failure to provide for sanctions in the Camp David accords the price that Israel is extorting while it converts more occupied lands into usurped lands? And is the normalization of relations that Israel is forcing upon Arab Egypt the means of removing Egypt from its role in achieving the united Arab destiny and its central position in the confrontation for the establishment of the rights of the Pdlestinians in their own homeland? 241. We should like to declare here our conviction that Egypt, given a choice between regaining the Sinai and itself returning to its real roots, would choose to be re- stored to its natural national position in the leadership of the Arab nation. Such a restoration of Egypt to the Arab family would itself ensure the return of the Sinai, not as compensation or an alternative for the achievement of Pal- estinian rights but as part of the restoration of all Arab lands to their legitimate owners. 242. The Arab nation did not reject the Camp David accords for th~ sake of rejection, as some charge. Our total and final rejection of those accords was motivated by our desire to see the Palestinian people affirm their right to self-determination under the leadership of the PLO. 243. We were also motivated by our determination to regain all the occupied Arab territories undiminished; by the clear need for the United Nations to safeguard its au- thority and effectiveness; and by the necessity of the in- ternational community's finding a permanent, equitable and comprehensive solution for the Middle East crisis and the Palestinian question. Needless to say, such a solution must conform to the resolutions of the General Assembly and to intt:mational instruments; otherwise the law of the jungle will prevail and international peace will be in peril. 244. From this rostrum we salute the magnificent re- sistance of our people in the occupied territories. Their courage and determination foil Israel's attempt to entrench its occupation, undermine Israel's ability to ignore inter- national public opinion and expose the limits of Israeli blackmail, treachery and obfuscation. 245. Our people realize that their resistance to the oc- cupiers is not just an indication of their devotion to their rights and to their lands but is an expression of the will of the Arab nation and its determination to win back all its rights and to restore the credibility of international legal- ity. 246. Despite the challenges that beset us we retain our faith in the effectiveness of the international Organization, but, as other speakers have noted, there are limits to our patience. 247. The world recognition of the rights of the Palestin- ian people is important, but it is not enough. The interna- 248. It has become imperative to transform United Na- tions resolutions concerning recognition and support into measures to enforce the international will as expressed in the resolutions of the General As.sembly.

To allow the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions and the Fifth Committee time to consider the financial implications of the draft resolutions concerning this item, voting will take place at a later date. 250. Since we have heard the last speaker in the debate on this item, I shall now call upon those representatives who wish to speak in exercise of the right of reply.

Today once again we have witnessed the double standards of Saddam's regime. While they are very loud in their words condemning the Israeli aggression, in action they do precisely what the Zionists do. Whai hypocrisy. 252. The statement by the Saddam delegation clearly exposes the bankrupt mentality of Saddam's regime. They imply that if a brutal Zionist murders a Palestinian it should be condemned, but that, according to the genius of Saddam and his brilliant, fair-minded representative, genocide by Saddam's army of our innocent people is ap- parently all right. 253. It is because of our Islamic principles that we can- not help but condemn all aggression, by anybody, at any time, anywhere. To us as Moslems aggression is aggres- sion is aggression, whether it be aggre~sion by the Zionist butchers against our oppressed Palestinian brothers and sisters, or the inhuman genocide of the Vietnamese peo- ple by the United States imperialists or the aggression of the s~vage army of apostate Saddam against our school- children, hospital patients and h._iC'~ent civilians-against our people as a whole. 254. Mr. Saddam, your fuzzy, cloudy words cannot hide the bright sun: you are aggressive, you have invaded our land, you are condemned by the conscience of all human- ity. 255. Representative of Saddam, 0p'~n your ears and lis- ten. According to the Definition of Aggression adopted by the General Assembly in' its resolution 3314 (XXIX), "military occupation, however temporary ... or any an- nexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof" qualifies as an act of aggression. 256. For the past fourteen and a half months, Saddam's savage but disorganized army, in continuing defiance of all international laws and the Charter of the United I Nations, has been occupying our country, bombing our . hospitals and schools and committing the mass murder of . our innocent civilians. 257. Article 6 of the Charter of the United Nations stip- ulates that .~ Member of the United Nations which has per- sistently violated the Principles r.ontained in the present .Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the 259. After Saddam's military attack against our people, Ezer Weizman of the Zionist regime of Israel-indeed, South Africa's best friend-said, "We could never have designed a better plan for Israel than Iraq's attack on Iran". Menachem Begin also said that he was very happy when Iraq attacked Iran. Brzezinski, the security adviser to Carter said, prior to the Iraqi-imposed war, '~merica is out to change totally the direction of the Islamic revolu- tion of Iran. In order to do this we must give complete support to Iraq." 260. Recently, George Ball, the notorious political wiz- ard of the United States imperialist Government, made some revealing comments which were reported by most United States news m~dia. He said that the United States would be better off if it could give more support to all criminal terrorists opposed to the Islamic revolutionary re- public of Iran. 261. And today, interestingly but not surprisingly, Sad- dam's representative, in support of all thnse terrorist crim- inals, sought to challenge the only true Government our people has known in the history of our country. We think that the United States imperialists should thank the repre- sentative of Saddam for his arrogant, clownish proposal, if they have not done so already. Israel too should reward the Saddam regime for engaging the Iranian and Iraqi armies in a war of attrition that has brought only peace of mind to Zionist Israel. 262. It is precisely owing to that joint recommendation of the United States imperialists and the Zionist Israelis that the mercenary Ba'athist regime of Iraq has been able to commit every crime possible against the Islamic revo- lution of Iran and against the Moslem people of Iraq. I shall briefly present a picture of those crimes. 263. First there is the mass deportation ef Iraqi families .racially tied with the Iranians to the war front, seldom at night, to serve as a shield for Saddam's defeated army so that they can bring back order to that army, which is in disarray, knowing that our courageous fighters, because of their Islamic principles, would never fire upon innocent civilians. 264. Then there is the mistreatment, torture and murder of prominent members of the clergy and religious revolu- tionaries in Iraq, including the martyrdom of one of the greatest Islamic philosophers, the author of numerous in- valuable books, Ayatollah Mohammad Bagher Sadre, and his learned and brilliant revolutionary sister. That was in- deed a major catastrophe for the world of Islam. 265. Other crimes have included raiding Iranian schools in Iraq, imprisoning the teachers and assaulting and tor- turing their families. The Iraqi aggressors have also im- prisoned thousands of Iranian civilians as prisoners of war, while they have treated genuine prisoners of war in the most inhuman manner possible. Reports by the Inter- national Committee of the Red Cross bear witness to the Ba'athists' cruelty. Further, the Iraqi regime recently de- clared officially that any Iraqi who has a wife or husband

The Egyptian delegation listened with interest to what was said by the last speaker in this afternoon's debate. In this connection I should like to note that some of that speaker's ideas are worthy of study, but many of them sl10uld be rejected. 268. Egypt is an Arab country. It belongs to the Arab world and it is there that its destiny lies. It does not need anyone to confirm that. It does not care if this or that person. talks disparagingly about or casts doubts on its belonging to the Arab world. 269. The return of Sinai to Egypt is inevitable. It is part and parcel of the Arab struggle and an essential compo- nent of the Egyptian strugglp.. Egypt is not faced, as the speaker said it was, with a choice between the return of the Sinai and its own return .to the Arab ranks. These two elements are intimately linked. and we reject the strange logic of Mr. Clovis Maksoud. 270. Egypt wishes to recover its territory, whether the speaker likes it or not. The Egyptian will is to remain steadfast in the Arab ranks. 27 I. The return of Sinai is part of the return of the Arab land to its owner. The return of the Sinai to Egypt is not an alternative to the restoration of Palestinian rights but a step toward the return of those rights. 272. We reject the fabrications and play on words that have long influenced Arab positivism. 273. Hence we welcome the participation of the Euro- pean countries and their declared position on the libera- tion of the Sinai, which we see as a step in the right direction. We find the position of the speaker strange, and we noticed his repeated attempts to prejudice the return of Egyptian territory to Egypt and of the Sinai to its moth- erland, Egypt. 274. Egypt entered into peace negotiations after 100,000 lives had been sacrificed in the Sinai, and Mr. Maksoud knows this very well. Let us have a little realistic and rational thinking instead of rhetoric and delving into con- voluted philosophies, please. The return of the Sinai to Egypt and the matter of Egypt's belonging to the Arab world are not facts for Mr. Maksoud or anyone else to comment on or to prejudice. Our belonging to the Arab world is established, the liberation of our territory is one of our rights, and the maintenance of peace in the Middle East is a commitment that Egypt will stand by until the occupied Arab territories are liberated, until the rights of the Arabs are restored within the framework that has been supported in this Hall and in accordance with the resolu- tions and principles of the Organization.

I listened, as did other representatives, I am sure, with ex- treme interest to the cacophony of lies and fabrications put forward by the representative of Iran, a cacophony of lies that he makes a habit of producing every chance he gets. And here I must testify to his genius in falsifying facts and playing with words. Therefore, I am not going to answer those lies. However, I will put certain questions 277. Secondly, who is still occupying the three Arab is- lands, and why has he not relinquished them? 278. Thirdly, who has more than onr.e declared that the Arab lands between Aden and Baghdad are Iranian Per- sian lands that must be recovered? 279. Fourthly, who claimed that if the Iranian army wanted to it could occupy Baghdad and we could not pre- vent it? 280. Fifthly, who addressed the Iraqi people as if they were a small part of Iran, and who tried to stir up the Iraqi people to rebel against the regime in Iraq? 281. Sixthly, who appealed to the Iraqi armed forces to carry out an armed rebellion against the military lead- ership? 282. Seventhly, who called the 1975 agreement between Algeria, Iraq and Iran the dead agreement, the suspect agreement, and said that that agreement would not be re- spected? 283. Eighthly, who has insisted on every occasion on the export of the Islamic revolution, and what was meant by that? 284. Ninthly, who sent saboteurs into Iraqi towns to murder children, students, and innocent civilians, and why did all those hostile acts and acts of sabotage stop completely after the hostilities began? Who bombed the frontier towns of Iraq-Khanaqin, Mandali, Zurbatiyah and Naft Khaneh-and who demolished houses and killed their innocent inhabitants? Who started bombing our economic installations in the city of Basra, and who blocked the passage of ships in the Shatt al Arab before 22 September? 285. I should like to ask here what the response of the representative of Iran is to the statements of Rafsanjani broadcast at Teheran on 25 November about the relations between that regime and the Zionist regime. 286. Tenthly, who took the initiative of accepting media- tion and declared that he was ready for a truce by mutual agreement? Was it not President Saddam Hussein? 287. Eleventhly, who announces daily through all the mass media the murder of scores of innocent citizens'? Is it the Iraqi regime or is it Teheran? 288. Twelfthly, who boasts of murdering children and women, including pregnant women? I read in an interna- tional newspaper that two women had been executed by a firing squad a few days earlier, and that it was discovered that both had been pregnant, and the woman who per- formed the final ablutions on the bodies became insane and is now in an asylum. 289. Thirteenthly, who kills Kurdish citizens every day? Is it Iraq or Iran? And against whom are the Kurds con- ducting their national revolution? Is it against Iran or Iraq? 291. Fifteenthly, does the Iranian representative know what is going on in his country at the hands of Kho- meini's intelligence service, v/hich is the successor to ~AVAK? .Does he know how many have been murdered m Iran s10ce Khomeini took power? Who claimed that only blood could purify the Islamic revolution? Does the Iranian representative know that Khomeini suffers from a serious disease, name!y, that of committing crimes, be- cause not a day passes that he does not commit murder, a~ w~s re~orted by the former delegate Mansour Fahig in hIS 10tervlew on Channel 13 of American television? Does he know that every day a number of Iranian officials resign their posts in order to join the national front which is struggling to liberate Iran from the junta of the ignorant regime in power? Lastly, does he know that the damage caused to Islam and to Moslems by Khomeini's criminal regime through oppressive and repressive measures to sat- isfy its bloodlust can never be effaced by time?

I shaH now call on representatives who wish to exercise the right of reply a second time. 293. ~r. SABZALIAN (Iran): There is no way that in five m10utes I can answer all those fabrications and alle- gations of Saddam's representative. The representative of Sad~am ha~ ma~e many very interesting allegations agamst us.mcIud1Og the one about Radio Teheran's ad- mission of an arms deal somehow with Zionist Israel, in their usual manner of fabrication. 294. Recently, while I was walking along a New York street and observing some of the crowded bookstores, I came to the conclusion that, indeed,"there is a great mar- ket for fiction and fantasy in the United States. Since ~ad~am Hussein al Takriti's ~gime is on the verge of 10evltable collapse, and that wIll leave the representatives of Saddam and Saddam himself unemployed, we suggest tha~ with their superb ability in the field of fantasy and fictIOn they should seriously consider the profession of fiction writing, and we guarantee a very successful future for them. 295. I cannot answer all their fabrications and all their alI~gation~. However, I wi~l attempt to answer only one of th.elr storIes, one of the Issues. Saddam's representative tned to show a very deep and sincere regard for Islam and for the Moslems of Iran. Let me quote one statement Saddam's delegate must have lots of guts to talk about Is~am and sectarianism. We know why they are doing thIS, why t~ey are enumerating all these items; we know th~y are usmg. these b~sehss ~1I~gations to cover up their cnmes commItted dur10g theIr 1Ovasion of our country. 296. But we will catch them with their own trick. bll ~ovember 1980, Saddam al Takriti, in the so-called par..: lIament of Iraq, said "The Persians are not Moslems be- cause the Koran is in Arabic. The Prophet was an ·Arab, ~nd Islam belongs to the Arabs." This is not the only time, of course, that they have made such statements. 298. How like that arrogant Menachem Begin Mr. Sad- dam sounds. I wish I had more time so that I could go on and answer more of the allegations. Perhaps on a future occasion, when I have more time, I can shed some more light on this type of nonsense. I will try to present our point of view then regarding who was the aggressor, who started the war; it is a very interesting story.

I must beg th~ Assembly's indulgence once again. I will not use my tIme for reply. I would simply like to repeat bef?re ?ur dear brothers and friends the following: I asked dIrect and clear questions and I should have likej to have :answers to those questions. 300. I have one final question that I should like to add to. those I.pu! to the ~ra~ian delegate. Which country has stIpulated m ItS constItutIon that the Iranian head of State must belong to the Persian ethnic group? What does this mean? I am still awaiting an answer to this question.

I would like to inform the members of the General Assem- bly that the President of the Assembly today received a letter from the Chairman of the Special Political Commit- tee requesting a further postponement, until Monday, 7 December, of the time-limit for the submission of pro- p~sals containi~g financial implications so that the Com- mIttee can consIder the new draft resolutions before it un- der the agenda items that it has yet to examine. May I take it that the General Assembly approves the request of the Special Political Committee? NOTES