UN General Assembly: Biden warns against Lebanon escalation – DW – 09/25/2024

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine with a “just and lasting” peace.

“Peace means that Ukraine’s existence as a free and independent country is guaranteed,” the minister told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York. 

Baerbock said Germany is very grateful that more of its partners in the world are thinking about how to end this war. “We need this. We need an end to this war,” the minister said.

“But this cannot mean for us to stand by and watch while there is no end to this war, while [Russian President Vladimir] Putin hasn’t taken the seat at the negotiation table, to just stand by and watch Russia destroying the remaining half of Ukraine,” she added.

Iran is ready to end its nuclear standoff with the West, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly. At the same time, he called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine through dialogue.

“We are ready to engage with participants of the 2015 nuclear deal. If the deal’s commitments are implemented fully and in good faith, dialogue on other issues can follow,” Pezeshkian said.

Former US President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear pact between Tehran and six world powers in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran. Efforts to revive the pact have subsequently failed.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has expressed disappointment with US President Joe Biden’s remarks on the Middle East and expressed hope for more diplomacy from Washington.

“It was not strong, it is not promising, and it would not solve the Lebanese problem,” Abdallah Bou Habib, who was attending the UN General Assembly, said at a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace event.

“We are still hoping. The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon,” he said.

In his speech to the General Assembly, Biden warned against “full-scale war” in the Middle East and urged diplomatic solutions in both Lebanon and the almost year-old Gaza war. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that his country will emerge victorious and fully repel Russia. 

“One day in this hall, it will surely be said that Russia’s war against Ukraine has ended. Not frozen, not forced, not forgotten, truly ended,” he said. 

“And this will happen not because someone got tired of the war, not because someone traded something with [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin. Russia’s war against Ukraine will end because the UN Charter will work. It must work. Our Ukrainian right to self defense must prevail,” the Ukrainian leader added. 

DW news is broadcasting the entire UN General Assembly on YouTube. Watch here:

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the UN must do more to end Palestinian suffering and welcomed support for his country’s genocide case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Ramaphosa highlighted the escalating death toll since last year’s October 7 attacks by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent war against the Palestinian militants in Gaza. More than 41,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health authorities there.

War, famine and disease had all taken their toll in what Ramaphosa called an “act of collective punishment.”

“Through the United Nations and the instruments it wields, we must end the suffering that Palestinians are being subjected to,” he said.

“We are called upon to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and to uphold consistently and in their entirety the fundamental tenets of international law.”

Ramaphosa thanked countries that had lent their support to the ICJ case in which South Africa has accused Israel of genocide. 

In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention.

“The ICJ’s orders make it clear that there is a plausible case of genocide against the people of Gaza,” said Ramaphosa. “They further make it clear that states must also act to prevent genocide by Israel and to ensure that they are not themselves party to the violation of the Genocide Convention by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide.”

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has said Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was a “genocide” as he addressed world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

“The blatant aggression that befalls the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip today is the most barbaric, heinous and extensive aggression,” he said, labeling the conflict “a crime of genocide.”

The International Court of Justice is investigating a case filed by South Africa alleging that Israel is committing “genocidal acts” in its Gaza offensive, breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly denied the accusation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has denounced the makeup of the UN Security Council as a legacy of colonialism.

However, he also acknowledged the challenges in achieving long-sought reform.

“The exclusion of Latin America and Africa from permanent seats on the Security Council is an unacceptable echo of the practices of domination of the colonial past,” Lula told the UN General Assembly.

Lula said there needed to be a “comprehensive review” of the United Nations Charter that might reform institutions and address priorities such as the fight against climate change.

He added: “I am under no illusions about the complexity of such reform, which would go against ingrained interests that maintain the status quo.”

The five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council are legacies of the victors of World War II — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Brazil has for years been part of a joint push with Germany, India and Japan for the four powers to gain permanent Security Council seats.

In his speech to delegates, Jordan’s King Abdullah II ruled out the possibility of his country becoming an “alternative homeland” for Palestinians.

The monarch said he was responding to proposals floated by “extremists who are taking our region to the brink of an all-out war.”

Jordan, which borders the occupied West Bank and Israel, already has a large Palestinian population. 

Abdullah said his country “will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.”

He also urged the international community to join “a massive relief effort to deliver food, clean water, medicine and other vital supplies” to the Gaza Strip.

“I urge all nations of conscience to unite with Jordan in the critical weeks ahead on this mission,” he said. “Our world has failed politically, but our humanity must not fail the people of Gaza any longer.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has slammed the UN for inaction in  Gaza, which he said has turned into “the world’s largest children’s and women’s cemetery.”

“Not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza,” Erdogan told the UN General Assembly in New York.

“The truth, the values that the West claims to defend are dying … I ask openly: Hey human rights organizations, aren’t those in Gaza and the West Bank human beings?”

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says at least 41,467 people have been killed in the war, now in its 12th month, between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable. The UN says the majority of civilians killed have been women and children. 

US President Joe Biden called for a diplomatic solution as Israel conducts airstrikes in Lebanon, warning against a “full-scale war” there.

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Israel says it is launching strikes on Hezbollah weapons facilities and warehouses. The Lebanese Health Ministry says the strikes have killed at least 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women since Monday.

In his speech at the UN, Biden also urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a months-old cease-fire proposal. He told the UN he was committed to ending the war in Gaza, which began almost a year ago.

“Now is the time for the parties to finalize its terms,” he said of the agreement mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.

The deal would “bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and Gaza free from Hamas’ grip, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war,” Biden told delegates.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas-led militants carried out a terror attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 people hostage. Israel’s retaliatory military operation has killed 41,467 people and wounded 95,921 more, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its counts.

US President Joe Biden says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has failed and urged the United Nations to keep supporting Kyiv until it emerges victorious.

“Putin’s war has failed at its core aim. He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free,” Biden said.
Biden said the world had to choose whether to sustain support for Ukraine or walk away.

“My answer is we will not let up on our support for Ukraine,” he said.

US President Joe Biden has begun his address to the United Nations General Assembly for the fourth and last time as president.

“I’ve seen a remarkable sweep of history,” Biden said, noting the changes he has seen since becoming a US senator in 1972 before addressing present-day matters.

“I know many look at the world today and see difficulties and react with despair. But I do not. I won’t. As leaders we don’t have the luxury,” he said.

“I recognize the challenges from Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan and beyond.” 

“I know there is a way forward,” said the president. “We are stronger than we think” when the world acts together, he added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used his opening speech at the UN General Assembly to condemn a growing number of governments that feel they “are entitled to a ‘get-out-of-jail free’ card” for the wars they wage.

“They can trample international law. They can violate the United Nations Charter,” Guterres told world leaders. “They can invade another country, lay waste to whole societies or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people. And nothing will happen.”

He added: “The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable.”

Guterres addressed the conflicts in Sudan, in Ukraine and, most recently, the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that now threatens to spill over into Lebanon.

“Lebanon is at the brink,” he said. “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

Meanwhile, Guterres called the war in Sudan “a brutal power struggle” between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary.

“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads. Yet outside powers continue to interfere with no unified approach to finding peace,” he said.

In Ukraine, he said, “civilians are paying the price” as the death toll from Russia’s invasion continues to rise.

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has called on the international community to prevent further bloodshed from the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Pezeshkian was asked if Tehran would use its influence with Hezbollah to urge restraint.

“We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza at the hands of Israel,” Pezeshkian said in response. 

“Hebzollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” he added.

Earlier, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian accused Israel of destabilizing the Middle East.

“We don’t want to fight,” he said. “It’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region. They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go.” 

Iran supports Hamas, which is classified as a terror group by the US, the EU, Germany and others. It also supports Hezbollah, which the US, Germany and other governments also classify as a terror group. The EU classifies Hezbollah’s armed wing as a terror group.