As the 47th annual session of the U.N. General Assembly opened Tuesday, a bitter taste lingered from the closing session of the previous assembly the day before.
In his final address as president of the General Assembly, Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia spoke about the Middle East in terms that scarcely reflected the progress of nearly a year’s worth of peace talks and the election of a new Israeli government.
Replacing Shihabi in the largely ceremonial post will be Stoyan Ganev, the foreign minister of Bulgaria.
Shihabi, a Palestinian, warned that the “problem of Palestine and the Middle East” is “still being steered toward the unknown” and constitutes “a time bomb that will threaten world peace.”
This, he said, despite “all the efforts being exerted at present to reach a solution that may restore the legitimate rights to its people, or to stop the deterioration therein and the aggression upon it.
“The deprivation of the people of Palestine, of their land, and of their legitimate and human rights continues, the practices of which are being disclosed every day by international agencies and humanitarian organizations,” he said.
Shihabi’s speech was a reminder that while much has changed in Israel’s relationship with the international community, the day-today business of the United Nations has yet to catch up.
Before the United Nations gets down to the business of drafting and debating resolutions, the annual session starts with addresses from representatives of each country.
President Bush will address the world body Sept. 21, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres will speak Oct. 1.
The addresses of the Arab representatives will be seen by some U.N.-watchers as a gauge of how Arab sentiment is shifting in the wake of the apparent progress being made in the peace talks currently under way in Washington.
Israel will be getting a new U.N. ambassador in October. The post will be filled by Gad Ya’acobi, a former Cabinet minister and Labor Knesset member who will replace Yoram Aridor of Likud.
This year, as in many years past, Israeli diplomats expect the General Assembly to adopt roughly 35 condemnatory resolutions. Among the issues likely to be revisited are Israel’s 1981 bombing of Iraqi nuclear facilities and its refusal to accept an international peace conference under U.N. auspices.
The fact that Israel is participating in extensive talks with its Arab neighbors may well not be reflected in the language of the resolutions, which are usually introduced unchanged each year.
And while the Israelis expect to reduce the margin by which the traditional anti-Israel resolutions pass, they hold few hopes of defeating them altogether.
The addition of 18 new countries to the United Nations in the past year, bringing total membership of the world body to 179, is seen as increasing the tally in Israel’s favor. Most of the new countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe, have ties with the Jewish state.
Israel’s diplomatic agenda will not be strictly defensive, however.
A year after reversing the 1975 General Assembly resolution libeling Zionism as a form of racism, Israeli diplomats hope to overturn another taboo: that against Israel sitting on the U.N. Security Council.
Israel’s 44-year absence from a council seat has been in part a direct consequence of it not being a member of any of the U.N.’s regional groupings. Alone among U.N. members, Israel’s neighbors have blocked its entry into the Asian regional group.
This year, Israel is seeking to join the Western European group, a group that already includes the United States and Canada. If it wins the backing of group members, it would be eligible for one of the council seats allotted to Europe.
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