“Consider what we’ve accomplished here over the past few years”. The audience received him warmly that day, in contrast with the silent response that Bush often got at the United Nations gathering.
Advertisement
“The next two years will be key.We would have wanted this to be the start of a more sane and humane approach to the crisis”.
While there was no mention of the bitterly fought USA presidential contest, this year’s General Assembly opens amid uncertainty over who will succeed Obama, and perhaps less crucially, who will succeed former South Korean diplomat Ban at the UN.
About 21 million refugees have been forced to flee their countries due to conflict or persecution, the United Nations says.
Mr. Obama convened the meeting with the leaders of Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden in a push for commitments for nations to accept greater numbers of refugees from war-torn nations such as Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.
In the coming fiscal year, the U.S. will welcome and resettle 110,000 refugees from around the world – which is a almost 60 percent increase over 2015.
The U.S. said countries taking part were also pledging to increase humanitarian aid by $3 billion.
“We must reject the fundamentalism.instead we need to embrace the tolerance that results from respect for all human beings”, Obama said. “The US has closer relations with Cuba, helped Colombia end Latin America’s longest war, and it welcomed a democratically elected leader of Myanmar to this assembly”.
In his eighth and final address to the UN, Obama said the world faced a choice between a “better model of cooperation and integration” or “a world sharply divided and ultimately in conflict along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion”. He advocated for open democracies and open economies, while railing against the example set by Russian Federation and calling for more tolerance in all nations.
This was an obvious reference to the “crude populism” of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who fans a white supremacist ideology to win over support.
He said the world will be more secure if nations are prepared to help those in need and urged countries to follow through on their pledges “even when the politics are hard”.
“Surely, Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel, but Israel recognizes that it can not permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land”, Obama said. “Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel.(and if) Israel recognizes that it can not permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land”, he said.
President Mugabe and other world leaders were in NY as Mr Ban opened the global organisation’s Grand Debate for the last time, with world leaders expected to select his successor after 10 years at the helm of the world body. He leaves office after a decade at the end of this year. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness.
Advertisement
President Obama aimed strong criticism at the Syrians’ main ally, Russia, for its aggressive moves there and in Ukraine.
