UN General Assembly
1987

First, there is the nature o£ the conference. Its limits and its inability to provide the real solution expected of it would become immediately apparent if it were reduced to being an umbrella covering a series of bilateral negotiations - territorial or otherwise - and failed to address itself to the central parameters of the crisis, that is, the Palestinian question. To cover up the Palestinian question would be to forget that it is and will remain the original cause of the disputes in the Middle East and that if, as such, it is not solved there can be no real peace in the region. Secondly, there are the powers, the competence, of the conference. How could anyone venture to relieve the United Nations of its primary responsibilities in that respect, when we know the stake it has in the issue in view of its past role in the Palestinian tragedy? The United Nations continues to have complete and full responsibilities in this question, and they must be expressed within the international conference to be convened.