President Aidarous Qassem Al-Zubaidi, President of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), attended on Saturday evening in New York City the felicitating celebration event held by the southern community in the United States and Canada in honour of his first visit to the United States to participate in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, which concluded its work this past Friday.
At the event, which opened with verses from the Holy Qur’an, and then the National Anthem of the South, the President delivered a keynote address, whose full text is as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
All praise is for Allah, Lord of the Worlds. May the praise of Allah and His peace be on Prophet Muhammad [PBUH], his family, and Companions.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of the southern community in the United States of America, it is an immense pleasure to be among you today in New York City, the center of international decision-making, on the first visit to the USA.
My sons and brothers, all attendees
First of all, I would like to extend my sincere thanks and deep gratitude to the people of our great southern community in New York City for the warm reception and welcome they have given us. I equally highly appreciate the keenness of those who endured the hardship of the long journey to reach New York State from various American states to attend this meeting, to exchange opinions and ideas, and to closely share concerns and aspirations. All of you have been, and still are, a model of the southern citizen who loves his country and is attached to the soil of his homeland, in all actions and doings; whether he comes or goes. The pivotal role you have played in supporting the southern national movement since the outbreak of the southern liberation revolution is nothing but crystal-clear evidence of your close connection to your beloved homeland, its pure soil, and your true feeling of the suffering of your people inside the homeland.
O Free People of the South
The role of the people of the South in every country of the diaspora, including the United States, is prominent and witnessed in all stages of our southern liberation revolution, and today your people are counting on you to continue this pioneering national liberation struggle, through the broad participation of your experiences gained in the development and economic advancement of your country, the South, and the building of its state institutions.
Dear Sisters and Brothers
We have learned from history and the experiences of other peoples who went through the same arduous and bitter liberation struggle that we are experiencing today, that most of the national liberation revolutions that the world witnessed in the middle of the last century of victories would not have been crowned with nation-building were it not for the contributions and roles of their people in the diaspora and different countries of their destination.
All attendees
I am extremely happy to meet you here in the United States of America, whose community you have joined and you have been and will definitely remain a part and parcel of, and from which you have learned, first and foremost, that the factors for the renaissance and development of peoples are based on the values of coexistence, diversity, acceptance of others, respect for law and order, and competition in innovation and creative thinking in serving the homeland and elevating its pioneerity and status.
O Free People of the South
We have come to New York to participate in the great international forum, being shouldered with the concerns of the people and the cause of a nation at a steady pace on the same path engraved by the pure blood of thousands of our people who fell as martyrs and wounded on the path of dignity, and today we are here continuing the same path, armed with the will of Allah, the will of our free and mighty people, and the justice of our cause.
Dear members of our southern community
We have been and will remain striving for peace and will continue to support all peace efforts. A just peace that does not detract from the struggles of our people and responds to their aspirations and their right to true self-determination. From this standpoint, we reiterate our gratitude to the brothers in the Arab coalition countries led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for all their efforts. The sincere fraternal efforts they have made and are making to end the war and bring peace to the country, and we look forward to those efforts being culminated with the achievement of a just and sustainable peace, a real peace that is based on the realities on the ground.
All attendees
Our people in the South have been uncompromisingly struggling for a long time to obtain basic necessities, foremost electricity and adequate health services. Our people have also long suffered from terrorism, against which our heroic armed forces are fighting a fateful battle. As they have sacrificed in this battle huge numbers of the best men, the last of them was the heroic commander, the martyr Abdul Latif Al-Sayyid. I am also certain that many of you have lost members of your families and close friends due to war and terrorism, so one of the goals that we have set for this visit to this great country is to speak on behalf of our mothers and fathers at home who are striving for a better life for their children and grandchildren, and on behalf of our soldiers and forces who make daily sacrifices to keep our people safe and protect our country.
O brothers and sisters, people of the South in the United States
I will return to our homeland, the South, highly optimistic and motivated due to the important steps achieved for us during this visit, giving us hope that the future will be better for our people, who have gone through many adversities, difficulties, oppression, and abuse over the past three decades. Despite this, their courage was the most prominent feature, and their adherence to their just cause is the strongest.
In conclusion, I extend my sincere thanks to everyone who attended, and my thanks go to our friends who have been with us during this visit, until we meet on the next visit. See you all soon!
Peace, mercy, and the blessings of Allah be upon you all.
Then, the President announced that he will delay his return to the homeland for a few days, which he will devote to meeting with the members of the southern community in the United States and Canada to hear from them about their problems, concerns, and issues within the homeland in accordance with legal procedures.
In the celebration event, speeches were delivered by a number of figures and personalities, most notably the speech Ms. Sammar Ahmed, representative of the General Directorate of Foreign Affairs (GDFA) in the USA, and speeches by representatives of southern community in the United States, and poems were read, all of which articulated the happiness with President Al-Zubaidi’s visit to the United States, asserting their full support for the STC, until the achievement of all the goals for which the people of the South have been making ultimate sacrifices, at the forefront of which is the restoration of the State of the South with its full sovereignty over its entire national territory, with its internationally recognized borders until May 21, 1990.
