Your Excellencies:

It is a great honour for me to address you on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, to which the 22 countries forming the League of Arab States also belong. Allow me to offer my heartfelt thanks to the League's General Secretariat, to the host nation the Syrian Arab Republic, and all those present, for responding favourably to our request.

The Non-Aligned Movement has historically placed matters relating the region high on its agenda. In particular, a cause vigorously supported by its member states has been the struggle of the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and to the founding of its sovereign and independent state, with East Jerusalem as the capital, as well as the unconditional return of all the Arab territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.

The Movement's voice has been heard loud and clear in all the multilateral forums where the issue has been aired, including the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. The Movement has demanded an immediate end to the military aggression, to the collective punishment and massive violation of the human rights of the Palestinian people, by Israel.

Since the XIV Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana in September 2006, the NAM Coordinating Bureau in New York has issued nine declarations on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, as well as the Declaration on Palestine passed by the NAM Committee on Palestine at the ministerial meeting on 25 September 2007. The last of such declarations, issued on 29 February 2008, denounced Israel for its latest aggressions, and expressed deep concern over the sharp escalation of military action against the Palestinian people and the serious deterioration on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In response to the complex prevailing situation, the Movement's presidency reiterates the need to resume direct, serious negotiations between the parties, aimed at a comprehensive, just, lasting and peaceful settlement based on the relevant UN resolutions and consistent with the principles and rules of international law which the latter reflect.

Similarly, the Non-Aligned Movement has remained firmly opposed to modification of the legal, physical and demographic status of the Syrian Golan occupied since 1967, or of its institutional structure, as well as to Israel's measures for exercising its jurisdiction and administration in this area, in flagrant breach of international law and the UN Charter as well as Security Council Resolution 497 (1981) and other UN resolutions.

We also reject the threats of aggression towards Lebanese territory, and call on Israel to respect Lebanon's territorial integrity and sovereignty, while affirming our solidarity with the Lebanese people and government, who must be allowed to resolve their internal issues without outside interference of any kind.

Your Excellences:

In today's world, marked by an unjust, unsustainable economic and political order imposed by the powerful, attempts are made to establish such concepts as "preventive war" and "change of regime", all of which breach the UN Charter and international law. 

The architects of confrontation and war spare no effort or resources in "inventing" enemies in the Third World, placing our peoples in a permanent situation of vulnerability and danger. The Middle East has been and is a victim of imperial aggression aimed at the plundering of natural resources, which has already claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and the destruction of a cultural heritage of universal value.

We the nations of the South, almost all members of the NAM, have an absolute duty to maintain a spirit of solidarity and a united front in defence of the right of peoples to independence and self-determination; to sovereignty and territorial integrity, without any external interference; to peace and development.

The declaration adopted by our leaders at the XIV Summit, on the aims and principles and the role of the Non-Aligned Movement in the present international scenario, summons us to the defence of the principles of international law and the UN Charter, to the consolidation of multilateralism and to unity and solidarity among our nations - in contrast to the unilateralism and attempts to impose hegemonic domination in international relations.

We claim our right to development, to live in a world where our children are not threatened with malnutrition, high rates of infant mortality, death from curable and preventable diseases or starvation.

Let the thousand billion dollars spent annually on arms be dedicated to the realization of our right to development. Stop the attempts to impose alien patterns on our culture and traditions. We need solidarity for our development, we need a world characterized by coexistence between nations, mutual understanding, and respect for the diversity of cultures and civilizations. Let us work together to save the human race.

The Non-Aligned Movement, which constitutes the majority of the UN member states, should work in a spirit of unity to defend our interests.

As the Movement's presidency, Cuba makes its modest contribution, and is firmly committed to its process of revitalization and consolidation, on the basis of its founding principles, renewed and brought up-to-date by our leaders at the Havana XIV Summit.

On 28-31 July 2008, we shall be holding the XV Inter-Summit Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran. This will be a good opportunity to review progress and the implementation of the decisions we took in Havana, and for a general discussion of the main challenges we still face.

Also, the seventh conference of NAM Information Ministers will be held on 2-4 July on Margarita Island, Venezuela. There we shall be debating the main problems our countries currently face from the monopolistic onslaught by the transnational media, which is destroying our cultures and imposing the patterns of behaviour and consumption prevalent in their countries of origin.

This year will also see, for the first time, a meeting of the NAM health ministers within the framework of the WHO World Health Assembly in Geneva. Let us hope that our nations will be able to form a common front in this important sphere.

Your excellencies:

Cuba is deeply grateful for the support and solidarity it has always enjoyed from the Arab nations, in its heroic battle to preserve its sovereignty and independence, in the face of the sanctions and aggression from abroad. The Arab countries and the League of Arab states can, in their turn, always count on Cuba's support, sincere entente and solidarity.

Many thanks.