Mr. President,

At the outset, I am pleased to congratulate you on assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly ...
at its seventy fourth session, and express my appreciation to the efforts of "Maria Espinoza", president of the previous session.

Our gathering this year comes at a time when the challenges of the world are becoming so difficult, so we all have to open an in-depth discussion on developing our work under the umbrella of the United Nations, upholding the sublime values upon which the organization was established. This is by reaffirming our commitment to an effective and just international order, based on dialogue and cooperation and by promoting the culture of peace and mutual respect.

Egypt, as a founding member of the United Nations as well as a number of regional organizations such as the African Union, which this year we have the honor of its presidency and the Arab League, has always had its vision and contributions in facing the most serious challenges in our world.

In this respect, please let me, from this important platform, review those visions and contributions.

Mr. President,

Respecting the principle of coming up with national solutions is imperative to ensure the effectiveness of the multilateral international action. In this regard, Egypt has a pioneering national experience as it launched an ambitious plan to promote its society comprehensively including the firm counter terrorism. Also through an economic reform program, which is regarded as the most ambitious in its modern history, according to a plan and priorities crystallized nationally and won the support of the Egyptian people, who had the first credit to bear their burdens, and the implementation of its early stages successfully exceeding all expectations.

On the regional level, we have worked, in our capacity as President of the African Union, together with our brothers, on consolidating the principle of "African solutions to African problems" so as to adopt a comprehensive approach that aims to lay the foundations of development through a continental vision based on the elements of common history, unity of destiny as well as the confidence in our ability to move towards integration and uphold the interests of our peoples. To boost this trend, a new mechanism has been launched in Cairo especially for this purpose. This is the African Union Center for Reconstruction and Development", which focuses on the post-conflict rebuilding of countries.

Certainly, all of you have followed the successful results of the application of the principle of coming up with national solutions through an active African role that has fruitfully resulted in the peace agreement in Central Africa and a common vision among the different parties in Sudan to manage the transitional stage.

Therefore, I assure the importance of removing Sudan from the lists of state sponsors of terrorism, in recognition of the positive transformation taken place in this brotherly country, and enabling it to face economic challenges, through interaction with international economic institutions to meet the hopes of its people, and take the place it deserves within the international community.

In line with the principle of national solutions, the countries of the continent are fully convinced of the importance of developing genuine and effective partnerships to address the political and economic challenges they face, access to knowledge and technology, develop human resources, and provide funding as well as political support, which are fundamental to the achievement of the African Development Agenda 2063.

I, therefore, call upon international, continental and regional finance institutions to play their role in financing development in Africa according to the best and easiest conditions. The African continent is the continent of opportunities, which could be a new locomotive for the world economy, especially with the launching of the continental free trade area, and strengthening of regional integration arrangements as well as the development of an ambitious infrastructure strategy.

I, in this respect, refer to the initiative of Egypt to convene the first edition of the "Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development" in December this year to serve as a model for launching dialogue between international and regional actors, political leaders, funding institutions, civil society and the private sector, to implement international and regional initiatives and mechanisms in Africa.

Mr. President,

The settlement of inherited chronic crises is a necessary condition for any serious work to build a more effective international system. The most prominent example is the oldest crisis in the Middle East, namely the Palestinian Question.

The fact that this issue remains without a just solution based on the resolutions of the international legitimacy, that leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and its capital East Jerusalem, does not only mean the continuation of the suffering of the Palestinian people, but also the continuation of the attrition stage with regards to the resources of the peoples of the Middle East.

I feel satisfied to confirm what I had stated her in the past years that the Arabs are open to fair and comprehensive peace, the Arab peace initiative is still available and the opportunity is still present to start a new stage in the Middle East. However, we need bold decisions by which the Palestinians regain their rights and open the door to a big shift in this area and even in the history of the whole world order, because it will lead to establishment of a security and economic system in the Middle East, whose content are peace, security, cooperation and common interest.

Mr. President,

Adoption of the comprehensive solutions to roots of the international problems is an inevitable to render the multilateral international action a success.

This is applied to the prolonged Libyan crisis, where the people is suffering daily from woes of the armed dispute that should be ended. Time is ripe to decisively treat the roots of the Libyan problem totally through commitment  to the full implementation of all elements of the UN's plan that was endorsed by the Security Council in October 2017, and addressing the grave misbalance in distribution of authority and resources and absence of popular monitoring.

Inevitability of finding a comprehensive solution to the Libyan crisis is also required in Syria, where the solution has become urgent without time to waste, far from this vicious circle in which Syria has been living for 8 years. Egypt welcomes formation of the constitutional committee and calls for its immediate action without delay as a necessary step for a comprehensive settlement upon the Security Council's resolution No. (2254) to achieve Syria's unity and integrity, safety of its institutions, halt of bloodshed and complete uprooting of terrorism.

With the same logic, time has come to decisively end the crisis in Yemen through implementing the political solution with its known references and terminating external interventions from the regional parties' interferences which seek undermine the Arab security in the light of the attacks against the oil installments in Saudi Arabia.   

Mr. President,

The necessity of the comprehensive solution principle also applies on the most serious challenge in this age; that is terrorism. Egypt always calls for adopting a comprehensive approach to counter terrorism, based on the necessity of confronting all terrorist organizations should fully abide by implementation of the Security Council's relevant resolutions, and bringing to justice those who support terrorism with funds, arms, safe havens, media outlets or involved in transport and travel of terrorists. From this platform, I confirm that Egypt, with its experience in counter terrorism, is ready to boost its cooperation with the friendly countries and United Nations especially in confronting the ideologies of terrorism.

In this regard, I stress the importance of enforcement of the Security Council's resolution No. (2354) that tackles the global comprehensive framework to counter terrorism narratives. This resolution was passed according to an Egyptian initiative to uphold values of tolerance and renew religious discourse.

We have to address seriously the current shortcoming in formation and resolution taking in the Security Council through fair and balanced representation in the Council. Concerning the African continent, it is inevitable to remove the historical injustice on it. I affirm that we are committed to the unified African stance, built on "Ezulwini" Consensus and Sirte Declaration, calling you to adopt this fair attitude.

Mr. President,

Along decades, Egypt has been striving to consolidate ties of cooperation with its brothers in the Nile Basin Countries, out of its keenness to upgrade progress of their peoples. Egypt had expressed its understanding of Ethiopia's plan to build the "Renaissance Dam", although it had not conduct the sufficient studies about affects of this huge project that should consider causing no damage to the water interests of the downstream countries including Egypt. We took the initiative and signed the Declaration of Principles in 2015 which launched the four-year-long negotiations to reach an agreement regarding the process of filling and operating the dam.

Unfortunately, the negotiations have not reached the desired results. However, Egypt still hopes reaching an agreement that guarantees the common interests of the Blue Nile's peoples in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The continuous stalemate of negotiations about the Renaissance Dam will lead to negative repercussions on stability and development in the area in general and in Egypt in particular. We recognize Ethiopia's right to development, but the Nile water is a matter of life and existence in a way that puts a major responsibility on the international community to undertake a constructive role in urging all parties to have flexibility, seeking a satisfactory solution to all parties.

Mr. President,

In conclusion, Egypt's message comes today in the form of an appeal to achieve peace, good action for humanity, cooperation and common understanding, sustainable development, boost and protect human rights. This appeal calls for realizing that it is the optimal path for the welfare of the international community.

May Allah renders our efforts a success for prosperity of all our peoples.

Allah's Peace and Mercy Be Upon You