UNITED NATIONS — World leaders gathered in New York for the start of their annual meeting at the UN General Assembly. Let’s just say the mood was pretty somber.
Leader after leader spoke of the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, climate problems, exclusion from UN decision-making, poor countries struggling to feed their people. “I cannot remember a time of greater danger than this,” said KING ABDULLAH II of Jordan.
A few speakers, including the American President JOE BIDENtried to spread a message of hope for the future. “We are stronger than we think. Together we are stronger than alone,” Biden said. “And what people call impossible is just an illusion.”
But the US was the target of much veiled criticism for its unilateral response to the war in Gaza: “Impunity” was the word of the day.
Below is a daily guide to what’s happening at the United Nations this week, day by day:
WAR IN GAZA: Many delegates focused their speeches on the war in Gaza. Jordan’s Abdullah said Israel’s campaigns undermine a key part of the international system for protecting human rights. He cited as examples: the bombing of UN shelters and schools; the inability of UN staff to help; and humanitarian workers being overwhelmed by the conflict. As for the idea of Palestinians finding a new home in Jordan, he said forced displacement is a war crime and “that will never happen.”
Turkish President RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN called the UN a “dysfunctional, unruly and inert structure” and told delegates that “international peace and security are too important to be left to the whims of the privileged five” permanent members of the Security Council. He called on the Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel and said the general assembly should recommend the use of force to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the exchange of prisoners and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
Brazilian President LUIZ INACIO LULA DASILVA said: “The right to self-defense has become a right to revenge, which prevents an agreement on the release of hostages and delays a ceasefire.”
Biden reiterated his calls for a ceasefire and the return of hostages: “A full-scale war is in no one’s interest.”
IRAN: In his first speech at the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting of world leaders, the president said MASOUD PEZESHKIAN struck a more moderate tone than his predecessors have often done in recent years. “I want to lay a solid foundation for my country’s entry into a new era, and position it to play an effective and constructive role in the evolving world order,” said Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who ran as a reformer. He took office in July.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS: Erdogan criticized the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July, which featured drag queens and was widely misinterpreted as a depiction of Christ’s Last Supper with its disciplines, calling it a “disgrace” that “revealed the scale of the threat we face as humanity.” Erdogan, whose government has cracked down on LGBTQ+ events in recent years, added: “Anyone who raises their voice against this project of destruction and shows the slightest reaction will be silenced and become the target of lynch campaigns,” he said. “Turkey is determined to break this siege and oppose this climate of fear at all costs.”
Israel’s envoy to the UN says his country will not send troops to Lebanon but will do “whatever it takes” to stop Hezbollah rocket fire that has driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their country’s north. “We prefer a diplomatic solution. But if that doesn’t work, we will use other methods to show the other side that we mean business,” Ambassador DANNY DANON said.
JON FINER, the White House deputy national security adviser, said Biden administration officials were in talks with allies to help find a way forward for escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. “We’re working to do it in real time, here in New York and in capitals around the world,” Finer said at an event hosted by the news site Axios. He dodged questions about whether the fighting has already become the all-out war the US has urged Israel to avoid with Lebanon as it continues its nearly year-long conflict in Gaza. But he stressed that a “larger war, a broader war” is in neither Israel’s nor Lebanon’s interests.
In the run-up to Biden’s introduction for a climate speech in New York, actress and activist JANE FONDA changed a number of words, some by accident, some not, to call attention to climate change. When talking about Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, Fonda slipped up and started calling it the “Inflammation” Reduction Act, then corrected herself to say that inflammation actually works, given global temperatures. When talking about fossil fuels causing climate change, Fonda was blunt and profane: “Forget natural gas, forget f—-ing fossil gas. There’s nothing natural about it and it’s terrible for people and the environment.”
Several African leaders this year again complained about the lack of permanent representation in the UN Security Council. “Africa and its 1.4 billion people continue to be excluded from its key decision-making structures,” said CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, the President of South Africa. “The UN Security Council urgently needs to be reformed. It must become more inclusive, so that the voices of all countries are heard and considered.”
El Salvador’s President NAYIB BUKELE has boasted of his country’s improved security, transforming the tiny Central American nation from one of the world’s most dangerous countries to one of the safest. Bukele was re-elected in February to an unprecedented second term in large part on the strength of his security record in crippling the country’s once-powerful street gangs. The media-savvy millennial leader has locked up more than 81,000 people under a state of emergency that has been in effect for more than 2 1/2 years and has suspended many basic rights. “Some say we have jailed thousands, but the reality is we have freed millions,” Bukele said. “Now it is the good (people) who live freely, without fear, with their freedoms and human rights fully respected.”
“Security is not just about having strong armies and weapons of mass destruction. True security is only achieved with trust, equality and prosperity for all peoples.”
— SADYR ZHAPAROV, President of Kyrgyzstan
Of the 193 countries in the United Nations, Brazil spoke first at the General Assembly’s annual debate on Tuesday — as it has since the UN’s earliest days. Why? Because Brazil volunteered to speak first when no other country wanted to. A tradition was born. The United States usually comes in second, since it hosts the UN headquarters in New York. Everyone else’s speaking time is determined by a number of variables, including how senior the speaker is (head of state versus cabinet member, for example), countries’ own preferences, and geographic balance.
Number of times UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used the word “impunity” in his opening statement Tuesday: 5
“My fellow leaders, let us never forget that some things are more important than staying in power. It is you people who matter most. Never forget that we are here to serve the people, not the other way around.”
— Biden, who drew applause when he used his decision not to seek re-election as fuel for his call for all leaders — especially the autocrats in the room — to focus on democracy over personal power
“Not only are children dying in Gaza; the United Nations system is dying, the truth is dying, the values the West claims to defend are dying, humanity’s hopes of living in a fairer world are dying one by one.”
—Erdogan, speaking about the countries he says blindly support Israel, at the cost of tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.
Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, the leader of a country at war, will address the General Assembly on Wednesday. The Security Council will also hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Lebanon.
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AP writers Seth Borenstein, Michael Weissenstein, Marcos Alemán, Matthew Weis and Matthew Lee contributed. See more of AP’s coverage of the UN General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations
