UN General Assembly
1988

﻿ Mr. President, I should like at the outset to congratulate you on your election to the esteemed post of President of the forty-third session of the General Assembly. I feel sure that the possibility of restoring to the United Nations the spirit of conciliation and peace for which it was founded will depend, in no small measure, on your wise and experienced guidance. In a discussion of the Middle East, history should precede diplomacy. The region has known epochs of war and golden ages, military conquests and spiritual greatness. It was in the Middle East that an invisible divide saw frustration and promise prevail in an unpredictable, seemingly uncontrollable, cycle. Yet it was man who triggered waves of hope and despair. Thus it was man who determined the course of history. Today, once again, the region faces a moment of human choice.