General Assembly: 20th plenary meeting, 81st session

1. Item 118(c)

   Election of members of the Human Rights Council

2. Item 123

   Implementation of the resolutions of the United Nations

3. Item 124

   Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly

🇰🇼 Kuwait, 🇮🇷 Islamic Republic of Iran

1. 🇰🇼 KuwaitFirst replyin response to Islamic Republic of Iran▶ 1:09:09 · 3 min

   I thank you, President. President, I wish to Practice the right of reply in response to the remarks made by the Iranian representative. We reject the statement made and we reject in particular the misleading narrative uh spread by Iran in order to justify its attacks against the state of Kuwait, the states of the GCC and Jordan under the pretext of self defense. We wish to highlight the facts. The state of Kuwait was never a party to this conflict. It has not been hostile to Iran, and it does not allow the use of its territories to launch attacks against any states. Attempts to justify the attacks against the state of Kuwait as legitimate self-defense does not change its legal nature and does not give a justification for the state of Iran to launch such hostile acts. Article 51 of the UN Charter cannot be turned into a justification pretext for the targeting of civilian infrastructure and civilians of other states. The representative of Iran stated that operations implemented cannot be considered a hostile act against regional states. However, this description does not alter the facts. Sovereign states cannot be targeted. The protection of civilians in these countries cannot be jeopardized without this being considered a hostile act. And Iran cannot in this regard reaffirm that it respects good neighborliness and sovereignty of states while it uses force against the state of Kuwait and other regional states, on the other hand. The facts have been documented. They are not allegations. The state of Kuwait has documented all attacks perpetrated against it. It has provided information to the Security Council through official notes providing details to member states on record at the United Nations. The Islamic Republic of Iran has provided no evidence that the State of Kuwait has enabled the use of its territories or its waters to wage attack against Iran. These facts cannot be considered allegations, and allegations cannot be considered facts. The state of Kuwait is not responsible for a conflict that it has not been party to, and Iran cannot use this conflict as a pretext to wage uh attacks against the sovereignty of the state of Kuwait. Attempts to misinterpret texts selectively cannot be a legitimate basis for the use of force against the state of Kuwait or any other state. And to blame the State of Kuwait for anything it does not responsible for legal responsibility and liability for these attacks is borne by the Islamic Republic of Iran. I thank you, President.

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2. 🇮🇷 Islamic Republic of IranSecond replyin response to Kuwait▶ 1:12:42 · 1 min

   Ismillah Rahman al-Rahim, thank you, Mr. President. To respond briefly to the delegation of the Kuwait, we want to stress again our position. Under international law, states are prohibited from allowing their territory to be used directly or indirectly to cause damage to other states. In addition, they must take all necessary measures to prevent foreign armed forces based in their territory from committing acts of aggression against other states. And must not facilitate or support such acts. In the event of a breach of these fundamental obligations, they bear international legal responsibility. Our defensive acts of acts against US military infrastructure were carried out in exercising our inherent right to self defense. Yet to date, Iran has exercised the utmost restraint in conducting such lawful acts. Our response was confined to U.S. military installations and assets. Once again, the Islamic Republic of Iran remains committed to maintaining and strengthening friendly relations with the countries of the region based on mutual respect, the principle of good neighborliness, and respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity. I thank you, Mr. President.

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3. 🇰🇼 KuwaitSecond replyin response to Islamic Republic of Iran, United States▶ 1:14:25 · 3 min

   Second intervention. Sukharan essay the raise. Thank you, Mr. President. I requested the floor to take the floor yet again in order to address the statement delivered by Iran. And Iran, which continues to repeat these lies, seeking to generate pretexts related to its country's attacks against my country, Kuwait, and it claims that Iranian attacks only targeted military US facilities in the region. And i I wish to take this opportunity to uh respond uh to pose a very direct question. This is a question to the representative of Overon. The uh civilian uh uh f facilities in civilian regions, are they are these military US facilities do they represent mil U.S. military facilities? What about the water and energy infrastructure uh for citizens which citizens uh depend on on an everyday basis? Uh are those military uh installations facilities uh and uh the the Kuwaiti airport, is that a civilian infrastructure? Uh I am talking about facts here, not allegations, violations, uh uh targeting the state of Kuwait. My country has uh assiduously documented these facts which we committed, which we communicated to the Security Council through various official notes which were submitted to the Security Council. These notes uh contain uh details about the material damage that was incurred as uh civilian infrastructure. We wish to ask how can Iran claim that these attacks targeted uh only military infrastructure when these attacks also targeted essential facilities, civilian facilities uh causing civilian deaths? Repeating these uh Iranian declarations and rhetoric uh rhetoric attempting to s uh allege that these are legitimate defense, those attacks, under no circumstances does this change the facts, and nor does this change reality. This does not allow uh the uh Islamic Republic of Iran to f shoulder to international responsibil uh uh international law cannot be interpreted on the basis of uh rhetoric rhetoric and arguments which are being used to justify uh flagrant uh violations of uh and uh the and the right to legitimate defense cannot be used as an excuse for targeting a civilian uh targeting a state that is not party to a conflict. I wish to conclude by stating that the state of Kuwait is not requesting that Iran justify its intentions. We are calling upon Iran to assume its responsibility for these acts. Uh that the sovereignty of states cannot be safeguarded on the basis of statements alone. Good neighborly relations cannot be upheld on the basis of these uh allegations. There is a need to ensure uh states are respected, sovereignty is respected, and to refrain from the use of force against these states. Thank you, Mr. President.

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Verbatim from the transcript. A reply is identified from its own words, the Chair's grant, or its place in the right-of-reply sequence; delegations and addressees follow the transcript's attribution.