Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, a Libyan national, has been president of the United Nations General Assembly since June 2009. He has served three times as Libya's representative to the United Nations, and since 2004 has been the Libyan Minister of African Union Affairs. Dr. Treki has previously held high level postings and ambassadorships for the Libyan government.[1]
Dr. Treki meeting with President Obama before opening of climate change summit, September 22, 2009 [2]
On September 18, 2009, at the beginning of his term as General Assembly president, Dr. Treki made controversial comments about a resolution calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality, saying, "That matter is very sensitive, very touchy. As a Muslim, I am not in favor of it… I think it's not really acceptable by our religion, our tradition. It is not acceptable in the majority of the world. And there are some countries that allow that, thinking it is a kind of democracy … I think it is not."[3]
The following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Treki, which aired on Syrian TV on April 11, 2010.
To view this clip on MERMI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2460.
Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki: "The siege on Gaza is a disgrace for the entire international community. It is a camp that is worse than the camps of the Nazis in the past. The world must uphold its responsibility.
[...]
"The resistance that exists is undoubtedly legitimate, by any international standard. This is resistance against the occupation of land. The serious resistance in Lebanon forced the Israelis to withdraw. There is great resistance of the Palestinian people, in occupied Palestine, in general, and in Gaza, in particular. This ongoing resistance annoys the Israelis, and it has the right to persist until the Israelis fulfill their obligations, and until the Palestinian people are given the right to determine its destiny and establish its state."
Endnotes:
[1] United Nations website, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/bio4124.doc.htm .
[3] On Top Magazine, September 23 2009, http://ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=4582&MediaType=1&Category=26 .
