Courinternationalede Justice
Enre----------re:fele
TO THE NETHERLANDS InternationalCourt of Justice
Filedin the Regi:tryo3 JP N ,i!00 4 33
The Hague, 30 January 2004.
Referring to yourterof 19December 2003, pleasefind enclosed a statement
by the Ministry of Foreign Affairsofthe Hellenic Republic.
Accept, Excellency,the assurancesof myhighest consideration.
Sincerel/yours,
GeorgeJ. Kaklikis
His Excellency
Mr. Ph. Couvreur,
Registrar at the InternationalCourtof Justice,
Peace Palace,
The Hague. MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFTHE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
In response to the letter of 19 December 2003 fiom the Registrar of the
International Court of Justice to the Ambassador of Greece in The Hague,
concerning the request for an advisory opinion made by the United
Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/ES-1O/14 of 8
December 2003 to the International Court of Justice concerning the legal
consequences of the construction of a Wall in the occupied Palestinian
territory,Greece has the honour to submitthe following observations:
Greeçe as a merilber of the European Union would like to refer to the
statement subrnitted by the EU in connection to Resolution ES-10113
cosponsored by the Union and adopted by the General Assembly on 21
October 2003, demanding Israel to stop and reverse the construction of
the Barrier inside the occupied Palestinian territories, including in and
around East Jerusalem,which is in departure of the armisticeline of 1949
and is in contradiction to the relevant provisionsof international law.
Greece fully subscribes to the views expressed in the relevant EU
statementstransmitted to the Courtby the IrishPresidency.
Greece is fully attached to the principle of peaceful settlement of
disputes, including by judicial means. With respect, however, to the
request for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice,
Greece would like to refer to the cornmon position of the EU of 8
December 2003, as regards the propriety of such a request. In that
political statement the EU emphasized that the request for an advisory
opinion would not help the efforts of the two parties to re-launch a
political dialogue and it would therefore be inappropriateItis,of course,
up to the Court to decide thereon, in the exercise of its discretionary
power under Article 65 of its Statute.
Letter dated 30 January 2004 from the Ambassador of Greece to the Netherlands, together with the Written Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic