Published on : 21/09/2022 – 19:25
In a long-awaited speech at the United Nations General Assembly, the US president on Wednesday delivered a strong condemnation of Russia, accusing Moscow of having “brazenly violated the principles of the Charter of the United Nations” by invading Ukraine.
Russia pilloried: Joe Biden accused Moscow, Wednesday, September 21 at the UN platform, of having “shamelessly violated” the principles of the United Nations. The US president also made a gesture towards developing countries by promising food aid and supporting Security Council reform.
As several Heads of State and Government did before him on Tuesday on the first day of this annual diplomatic high mass, Joe Biden attacked Russia head-on, which announced the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and brandished the threat of recourse to nuclear weapons.
“This war destroys Ukraine’s right to exist, quite simply,” said the American president.
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Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, “has shamelessly violated the principles of the United Nations Charter” by seizing parts of its neighbor’s territory, he insisted.
French President Emmanuel Macronwho had accused Russia at the rostrum of being responsible for a “return of imperialism and colonialism”, called on the international community on Wednesday to “put maximum pressure” on Vladimir Putin.
While the countries of the South are expressing growing annoyance with Westerners, accused of focusing on Ukraine to the detriment of the multiple crises suffered in the rest of the world, the American president has reached out to developing countries.
Fight once morest food insecurity
In particular, he announced on Wednesday a new aid of 2.9 billion dollars to fight once morest food insecurity in the worldwhich is in addition to a sum of 6.9 billion dollars already promised this year by Washington.
“In any country in the world, whatever the reasons for our divisions, when parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters, nothing,” he insisted.
Americans, Europeans and Africans pledged in a joint statement on Tuesday to act “with urgency, scale and together to meet the urgent food needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world”.
The UN secretary-general, reviewing the multiple crises facing a world that has not been so divided in a long time, warned of “a winter of global discontent”.
“The purchasing power crisis is unleashed, confidence is crumbling, inequalities are exploding, our planet is burning” and despite everything, “we are blocked by a colossal global dysfunction”, he lamented on Tuesday during his speech. ‘opening.
Joe Biden also said he was in favor of a major reform of the Security Council, consisting in increasing the number of permanent members (currently 5: United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China) and non-permanent members (15 today). today).
A claim made in particular by Japan and many developing countries. “It is time to uphold the just and legitimate African claim on the reform of the Security Council”, had thus insisted on Tuesday at the podium. Senegalese President Macky Sallat the head of the African Union.
Solidarity with Iranian women
Although this issue has been mentioned by several leaders, Ukraine will undoubtedly remain at the top of many leaders’ concerns for the rest of the week.
The speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday evening is thus eagerly awaited, even if he is not in New York and has obtained the exceptional authorization of the Member States of the UN to express himself via video message.
Ukraine will also be the subject of a Security Council meeting on Thursday and will bring together foreign ministers – theoretically in the presence of Sergei Lavrov, who leads the Russian delegation to the UN in the absence of Vladimir Putin.
The Iranian nuclear file and the demonstrations which are multiplying in Iran following the death of a young woman detained by the morality police have managed to make their way to the forefront of the international scene. President Biden has said he stands in solidarity with the “brave women of Iran” demonstrating across the country.
“Iranian leaders should notice that the population is unhappy with the direction they have taken. They can take another path,” British Foreign Minister James Cleverly told AFP on the sidelines of the Assembly. .
>> To read: Iran: “women no longer let themselves be done” in the face of growing repression by the morality police
During a speech longer than 30 minutes, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi defended himself, accusing the West of having “double standards” when it comes to women’s rights.
He also assured that his country “is not seeking to build or obtain nuclear weapons”, and doubted the sincerity of the American government to revive the 2015 agreement which was supposed to guarantee that the Islamic Republic might not acquire nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions on its economy.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons,” replied Joe Biden, believing that it is “impossible to win a nuclear war and it must not be waged”.
With AFP