UN General Assembly
1996

growth. Many projects have also been carried out in the areas of communications, transportation infrastructure, village electrification, expanded water-supply networks and increased health-care coverage. Let me express our appreciation to all of the brotherly and friendly countries, institutions and non-governmental organizations that have supported my country’s efforts towards these goals and thank them for the aid they have provided and continue to provide. Strengthening democracy and economic and social development requires the consolidation of peace and security both for States and individuals. We must therefore note the striking paradox, despite the end of the cold war and new hopes for peace and justice, of the re-emergence of terrorism, instability and the proliferation of hotbeds of tension around the world. The Middle East is one region where, unfortunately, this paradox is most alarming. My country, renewing its full support for the peace process, remains convinced that Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 13 425 (1978) and the principle of “land for peace”, adopted at the Madrid Conference, remain the bases for any