President Barack Obama conceded that the United States and other world powers have limited ability to solve the most profound challenges facing the world, while calling for a “course correction” for globalisation to ensure that nations do not retreat into a more sharply divided world. They did so against a backdrop of mounting bloodshed and a failing cease-fire in Syria, escalating attacks around the world by Islamic extremists, and millions of people fleeing fighting and poverty.
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But Ban blamed the Syrian government for the most deaths.
Ban said “many groups have killed innocent civilians – none more so than the government of Syria”.
In a statement, Syria’s Foreign Ministry snapped back, condemning Ban’s address and saying he “has deviated from its role in finding just solutions for worldwide problems”.
The air strike hit a 31-truck convoy late on Monday, killing as many as 12 people. Ban called the bombers “cowards”.
World leaders are grappling with the largest crisis of displaced persons since World War II, more than 65 million people who have fled their homes because of armed conflict or persecution, or because they are seeking asylum or a better way of life.
Still, he stuck faithfully to his insistence that diplomatic efforts and not military solutions are the key to resolving Syria’s civil war and other conflicts.
He said governing had become more hard as people lose faith in public institutions and tensions among nations spiral out of control more rapidly.
David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Foreign Secretary, said he’s hopeful but waiting to see whether any agreements are backed up with action.
“I believe we can not allow ourselves to stop here”.
“The way the president will approach this is trying to apply what we have done that’s worked in the last eight years as a template for how we deal with other crises”, Rhodes said.
President Obama had claimed Britain would be at “the back of the queue” for a trade deal with the United States if it quit the European Union, as the White House concentrated on its proposed TTIP agreement with the Brussels-based bloc. But he added that false perceptions of Islam in the West were breeding further intolerance.
A day before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he drew a parallel between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the need to respect racial minorities in the U.S.
That’s considered a blistering pace in the world of worldwide diplomacy, reflecting a sense of urgency in the fight against global warming and a desire to seal the deal before the Obama administration leaves office. On a morning when his secretary of state John Kerry was struggling to salvage a fragile cease-fire agreement there after a deadly airstrike on an aid convoy – which USA officials said later in the day was probably carried out by Russian aircraft – the president said: “We have to be honest about the nature of these conflicts”.
Last year’s Paris agreement to to combat climate change will help to reverse a rise in global temperatures, and the United States deal with Iran to roll back the country’s nuclear program has reduced the threat of another Mideast war, Mr Obama said.
The tough talk about Russian Federation illustrated how little progress has been made in reconciling the diverging interests among the two powers that has allowed the Syria crisis to continue to fester. Powerful patrons also have blood on their hands.
This year’s United Nations gathering has played out against the harrowing backdrop of the deepening civil war in Syria and the renewed failure of USA and Russian diplomatic efforts to stem the violence for any meaningful period of time.
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“A political transition is long overdue”.
