  {"id":212680,"date":"2005-02-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T20:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=212680"},"modified":"2019-03-12T20:28:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T20:28:24","slug":"auto-insert-212680","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-212680\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening of CEIRPP 2005 session\/Palestinian elections &#8211; SecGen statement &#8211; Press release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong><u>PALESTINIAN ELECTION SUCCESS AUSPICIOUS, BUT SITUATION REMAINS FRAGILE,<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong><u>SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN STATEMENT TO PALESTINIAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan&#8217;s statement at the opening of the 2005 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York, 7 February:<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tIt is a pleasure to join you today, at the opening of a new session of the Committee. &#160;The year ahead is a very important one for the cause of peace in the Middle East.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tThe year began auspiciously, with the successful conduct of the Palestinian presidential election.&#160; Palestinians can be proud of the peaceful and competitive atmosphere which marked the election campaign. &#160;The United Nations is glad to have been able to provide assistance to the electoral authorities, as we will for the upcoming Palestinian Legislative Council elections.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:left;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">The Palestinian people voted in large numbers for a candidate opposed to violence and committed to implementation of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unispal.un.org\/pdfs\/6129B9C832FE59AB85256D43004D87FA.pdf\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">Road Map<\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">. &#160;I applaud them for doing so. &#160;And I congratulate the new President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, on the significant moves he has made in his first weeks in office. &#160;I am pleased that Prime Minister Sharon has also taken important steps. <\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tThis new attitude of cooperation between the parties has already borne fruit. &#160;Security coordination has been restored. &#160;The two sides are now in almost daily contact. &#160;And tomorrow, President Abbas and Prime Minister Sharon will meet in Sharm El Sheikh, together with Egyptian President Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah. &#160;This is a welcome initiative.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tYet the situation remains fragile. &#160;The parties must be encouraged to deepen their political dialogue, and to match their positive words with action on the ground. &#160;In his inaugural address, President Abbas confirmed his readiness to restart final status negotiations with Israel. &#160;He also committed himself to restructuring Palestinian security forces, strengthening Palestinian institutions, and carrying forward democratic reform. &#160;I am sure he will move swiftly to act on these commitments. &#160;On the Israeli side, I also look forward to the early implementation of Prime Minister Sharon&#8217;s disengagement plan, in coordination with the Palestinian leadership, as an important step leading to the implementation of the Road Map.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tI urge all Member States to help the parties meet their commitments and strengthen their cooperation, so that the opportunity for progress towards peace now at hand is firmly grasped. &#160;The United Nations will continue to work with our partners in the Quartet for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, based on Security Council resolutions, and within the framework of the Road Map.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tMeanwhile, the economic plight of the Palestinians demands attention and action. &#160;Alleviating their suffering and providing economic opportunity is a humanitarian imperative and an important contribution to peace. &#160;United Nations agencies, including UNRWA, UNDP, WFP and UNICEF, bring help and opportunity to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who desperately need it. &#160;Those efforts need the strong and sustained support of donors.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\tI thank this Committee for its contribution to the goal of achieving peace in the Middle East.&#160; I wish you all success in carrying out your mandate during this year of such importance to the future of the Palestinian people.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;margin-left:20px;\">\n\t\t\t\t<strong>* *** *<\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PALESTINIAN ELECTION SUCCESS AUSPICIOUS, BUT SITUATION REMAINS FRAGILE, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN STATEMENT TO PALESTINIAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan&#8217;s statement at the opening of the 2005 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York, 7 February: It is a pleasure to join you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-212680\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329,3205,1338],"document-source":[1753,2173,5352,1897],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,2065,4317,1801,1749,1797,2557],"entity":[5343,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-212680","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-category-secretary-general-press-release","document-category-statement","document-source-ceirpp","document-source-division-for-palestinian-rights-dpr","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-public-information-dpi","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-electoral-issues","document-subject-governance","document-subject-inalienable-rights-of-the-palestinian-people","document-subject-palestine-question","document-subject-peace-process","document-subject-road-map","entity-palestine-plo-palestinian-authority","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/212680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/212680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=212680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}