Ahmed Attaf, Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs, said today’s global reality is turbulent, as conflicts accumulate and settlements are absent. Technological revolutions have proliferated as the development gap has expanded between the North and South. “Treaties are abundant, but implementation and commitment to their spirit are scarce,” he said, adding that multilateralism is being manipulated by unilateral action and self-serving conflicts.  Member States are obliged to restore respect for international law and effectiveness within multilateralism. “We must restore the United Nations as the beating heart of an international system based on the rule of international law,” he said.

The question of Palestine is as old as the Organization, and its legitimacy has been recorded in more than 900 Assembly resolutions and nearly 100 Council resolutions.  Today, Palestine faces the greatest threat ever “through the threat of erasure, through annexation and displacement”, he said, and the suffocation of legitimate institutions.  “The Israeli occupation is loud and proud,” he said, referring to its calls for a greater Israel.  The international community must uphold its responsibility and preserve the two-State solution and build a Palestinian State that is sovereign and independent, according to the 1967 borders.  He appreciated the increasing recognition of the State of Palestine, which must be empowered with full-fledged United Nations membership.

Turning to the Western Sahara, he said it has been 50 years since the Council adopted its first resolution on the decolonization of this region.  “The people are entitled to the right of self-determination,” he said, calling for a resolution created by the parties during direct negotiations and aligned with UN principles on colonization and justice.  He called for an end to foreign intervention in the Libyan crisis, which has deepened over 14 years.  Algeria is fully committed to the stability of the Sahel region and good relations with its neighbours.  He noted that for the second year in a row, a member of the coup regime in Mali dares to attack Algeria from this rostrum.  “It is the height of rudeness and vulgarity by which this failed poet has spoken and this coup plotter,” he said.  “It is only the illusion of a soldier and lowly conduct that does not deserve anything but condemnation.”