UN General Assembly
1991

When we last met here to reflect on the international situation, the high hopes of the world for peace and development after the relaxation of cold-war tensions risked being dashed in the face of the threat of war in the Gulf. In spite of world-wide appeals for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, sadly, war broke out. The damage that the war has caused to man and his environment is yet to be fully assessed. The immediate consequences of the war - many dead, the untold suffering of the bereaved, the displaced and the dispossessed, the unparalleled environmental degradation that the burning fires of Kuwait inflict on the region - testify to the fragility of a world that builds its peace on might alone or solely on the concept of deterrence. That the war occurred at all reminds us of the distance that still lies before us on the