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justice and righteousness; the Council is responding to the provisions of the Charter, whose authors wanted it to provide security not only to big nations, but — primarily — to small nations.
I feel unparalleled bitterness and embarrassment to be in the situation in which I find myself in the Council, dealing with a military invasion by a sisterly country with which we had previously always enjoyed close links; we have always been linked by our pure Arab blood, and we have always defended sacred rights and dedicated ourselves to them.
The Council is meting to discuss an invasion of which members undoubtedly already know the details from the flood of news from the mass media — radio and television.
As I address the Council, the people of Kuwait of all ages, the old and the young, men, women and children, are all suffering. Everybody throughout the world knows how much we love peace, that we are a peaceful people, that we are faithful to our ties with others and believe in honouring commitments and covenants. The people of Kuwait have played a positive role throughout their existence; this positive contribution has distinguished Kuwait internationally at all levels.
Our people and our sacred land have been subjected to attack in an armed military invasion by a sister country, Iraq. The whole world knows that Kuwait and its Government have played a positive role in solving regional problems by peaceful means and through negotiation. International forums have praised it for that positive role. We always co-operate and we offer aid to all; we share our bread with all friendly countries that have accepted this constructive, civilized coexistence. Yet now we are exposed to military invasion of the whole of our territory and to the overthrow of all our constitutional institutions.
