Second Committee, 15th plenary meeting - General Assembly, 81st session

1. Item 21

   Eradication of poverty and other development issues

2. Item 21(a)

   Implementation of the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2018–2027)

3. Item 21(b)

   Industrial development cooperation

🇵🇸 State of Palestine, 🇰🇼 Kuwait, 🇮🇷 Islamic Republic of Iran, 🇧🇭 Bahrain

1. 🇵🇸 State of PalestineFirst replyin response to Israel▶ 2:04:40 · 2 min

   Thank you, Chair. Uh the delegation of the state of Palestine exercises its right of reply to the remarks just made by the Israeli delegation. We constantly hear that Israeli claims uh to be a trailblazer in agricultural technology and a contributor to food security. Yet we must ask. What meaning does this uh agricultural innovation hold when an entire people's own food systems are systematically destroyed, their land and resources exploited, and their access to food inhumanely denied? In Gaza, hunger and starvation were weaponized by the Israeli occupation, as famine was declared last year. The UN estimates that only three percent of Gaza's croplands remain undamaged. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian farmers face relentless settler terror and violence, restrictions on access to their lands, and the systematic exploitation of Palestinian natural and agricultural resources. Palestinian resources and products are exploited by the Israeli occupation and its illegal settlements, then marketed internationally under Israeli labels, erasing their Palestinian origin and diverting the economic benefits away from the very people whose land is exploited to produce them. Mr. Chair, agricultural development cannot be divorced from the responsibility to uphold international law and ensure that all people can cultivate their land and feed their own families. Agricultural development cannot be championed with one hand, while the very foundations of a people's food security are destroyed with the other hand. The state of Palestine calls on the international community to ensure accountability, ban products originating from illegal Israeli settlements, and take concrete action to end the occupation that denies the Palestinian people their right to self determination, economic development, and food security. I thank you, Mr. President. doy las gracias al representante de

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2. 🇰🇼 KuwaitFirst reply▶ 2:06:36 · 2 min

   Shok Ranis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My delegation exercises its right of reply to the Iranian intervention. The state of Kuwait affirms that it is not a party to this conflict and has not allowed for use of its territory or airspace to launch attacks against any state. We reject any claim to the contrary, and we reiterate our condemnation in the strongest terms of the brutal Iranian attacks since the 28th of February, which have targeted our civilian objects and the critical infrastructure, and has threatened civilians and residents in a clear violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity and a violation of the principle of the no use of force as per the UN Charter. We reject the falsification of facts and the selective interpretation of international law and the charter. To invoke self defense is not to allow targeting civilian objects and is not to justify the attacks against a peaceful state. The Security Council has uh condemned these attacks in the resolution twenty eight seventeen, and the Arab group today and hours before uh has condemned these attacks. And accordingly, my country uh calls on Iran and its uh agents to end all attacks and to cease all interruption of uh freedom of navigation, and we hold Iran fully responsible. Uh uh uh in and including a call for compensation uh and while also Kuwait maintains its right to defend itself as per the UN Charter, we reiterate our call for a respect uh for state sovereignty and to commit to the peaceful means for settlement of disputes and to secure freedom of navigation as per UNCLOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. doy las gracias al representante de Cuba I thank Kuwait.

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3. 🇮🇷 Islamic Republic of IranFirst reply▶ 2:08:47 · 3 min

   Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my delegation rejects unfunded allegation against my country by the previous speakers. Our possessions is already, as I mentioned, is on record. At a time when poverty and food secure food insecurity demand urgent. Collective action, we should direct our efforts towards the responsibilities we shared under this committee's mandate. Countries of our region have a particular responsibility to promote peace, genuine dialogue, and cooperation. Regional cooperation can make a tangible difference through agricultural research, sustainable water management, resilience, food supply chains, and coordinated responses. To draw out and send in a storm and other shared environmental challenges. The Islamic Republic of Iran remains committed to cooperation based on mutual respect and shared interest. We encourage all other countries to do so. Mr. Chair, as I mentioned, the situation in the state of Hormuz cannot be separated from its root causes, unlawful military aggressions, and subsequent attempts to impose an Unlawful maritime blockade blockade is the root causes of such a kind of situation in our region. And then regarding the aggression against my country, the aggression has resulted in the killing of more than 3,400 Iranian people, including women and children, and the widespread destruction of Iran's civilian and vital infrastructure, including schools, hospitals. sports facilities, residence building, airport, cultural sites, and public saving centers. doy las gracias Those crimes against these crimes have been facilitated by certain regional countries that have been that have made their territory and military facilities available to the aggressors. I thank you. doy las gracias al I thank Iran. I now give the floor. It's to Israel to intervene a second time. Thank you, Chair, and I'm sorry for taking the floor for the second time. I didn't prepare a statement because we will have a full session to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict later this week and we can address it there. But I just want to say uh shortly to address to the comments by the Palestinian delegate that he knows and not it's it's it's so unfortunate that he cannot mention Hamas because thousands of Palestinians worked shoulder to shoulders with Israeli farmers before October seventh, and it was a win win for both of our people. Uh if we cannot recognize that and we cannot say what happened and what led to the situation we are in today, we will not be able to move forward to end with that. doy las gracias al representante de

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4. 🇰🇼 KuwaitSecond replyin response to Islamic Republic of Iran▶ 2:12:11 · 2 min

   Shook. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My delegation uh exercises its second right of reply to uh respond to the Iranian delegation. We reiterate once again our rejection of the Iranian claims and attempts to justify the attack against Kuwait. In addition, the state of Kuwait uh condemns the targeting of civilians and civilian objects anywhere, any time and under any circumstance. My delegation rejects the selective interpretation of Article fifty one. To invoke self defense is cannot justify an attack against uh is the state of Kuwait that has not uh uh exercised any aggression. And to invoke uh Uh the resolutions 33 uh 14 uh and uh another resolution uh does not uh prove the abuse of the Kerr Kuwaiti territory and does not justify attacks. And we once again we uh condemn the attacks against our civilian objects and critical infrastructure, and once again we call on uh Iran and its proxies to end all aggression against Kuwait immediately and to fully implement uh resolution twenty-eight seventeen, and we hold ri Iran responsible for the attacks uh since the twenty eighth of February, twenty twenty six. And this includes compensation for all moral and physical damages, while Kuwait maintains its right to self defense as per the UN Charter. We reiterate our commitment to the respect of the state sovereignty, and we call for committing to the uh peaceful means for the for the settlement of disputes and to guarantee freedom of navigation as per UNCLOS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. doy las gracias al representante

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5. 🇧🇭 BahrainSecond replyin response to Islamic Republic of Iran▶ 2:14:06 · 2 min

   Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I uh exercise my second right of reply uh to respond to Iran, uh whose intervention included allegations that are baseless. They are an attempt uh to distort the facts and invert them. The recent Iranian uh actions have directly targeted our country. They have attacked uh the infrastructure and um critical waterways in a threat to freedom of navigation and the global economy. The claim that this is self-defense is n uh has no legal grounds. Uh attacking a non conflict party cannot be justified by Article fifty one of the UN Charter. In addition, the attempt to uh reclassify these acts as necessary or cautionary acts uh uh do not undermine their illegality. We also uh reject the uh accusations that our territory has been used uh w in the military operations. These claims carry no evidence and they're an attempt to blame Uh parties that are not responsible for any of the wrongdoing, we call on Iran to immediately end any provocation or threat to neighboring countries, including uh including using their proxies. In conclusion, we emphasize that what we witness today is not simply a difference of narrative, but a real test to the commitment of the international community to the respect of international law and the maintenance of international peace and security. We will continue to cooperate with our partners to protect uh international navigation and to promote peace and security in the region. Thank you. representante de

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6. 🇵🇸 State of PalestineSecond replyin response to Israel▶ 2:16:05 · 2 min

   For giving me the floor again and apologies for taking the floor. Uh but I'm compelled to make the second rate of reply to the comments that we just heard from the Israeli delegation. Uh just to mention that since the beginning of the Israeli occupation, uh hundreds of billions of dollars have been exploited by the occupation, allowing settlements and settlers to uh steal, exploit, and falsely market their settlement products in international markets. So here we reiterate the call on states once again to abide by international law and to ban all products being uh uh produced in Israeli settlements. And of course everything that we just heard from the Israeli delegation is null and void, especially given that we have famine declared in twenty twenty five in Gaza, when hunger and starvation were used as a weapon of war. Thank you, Mr. Chair. doy las gracias al representante del Estado I thank Palestine. Thus the committee has concluded its uh um consideration of twenty one, item forty one, A and D. Um I remind delegations that the deadline for submission of draft proposals under item twenty-one A and D as well as agent agenda item twenty-three is Friday, sixteenth of October at three p.m. The committee will reconvene in this conference room tomorrow, Thursday, fifteenth of October at 10 a.m. to consider agenda item twenty two, operational activities for development, and its sub items A and B. The meeting is adjourned.

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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.