Noting that Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered an existential crisis for the United Nations, several of its key members on Thursday sharply denounced Moscow’s actions but took no further steps to prevent bloodshed and food, fuel and humanitarian crises unleashed around the world.
And in a separate action, Biden’s management on Thursday imposed economic sanctions on Iran’s infamous “morality police” in reaction to the death of a young woman in its custody. In Iran, it came a day after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addressed the United Nations General Assembly.
Raisi sought to deflect foreign outrage amid widespread street protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd who was allegedly arrested because her government-imposed veil did not completely cover her hair. Raisi refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing and instead mentioned human rights. abuses across the United States and other Western countries.
Iran’s morality police is made up of men who abide by dress codes and other restrictions on women and society at large. .
“The Iranian government will have to end its systematic persecution of women and allow nonviolent protests,” the U. S. secretary of state said. U. S. employees, Antony J. Blinken. a them. “
Responsibility, whether Iran for punishing dissent or Russia for alleged atrocities in Ukraine, amid this week’s annual United Nations General Assembly as participants discussed a world mired in probably insurmountable turmoil.
As world leaders gathered in New York, delegates used a special assembly of the United Nations Security Council, the UN’s governing body, to rebuke Russian President Vladimir Putin for violating key foreign regulations, which are at the core of the UN, in his ruthless attack. on Ukraine.
Russia “violates the same regulations for which this framework was created,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in one of speeches in a catalogue of speeches across the 15-member council and Ukraine.
At a Ukrainian display, Landsbergis wore a blue and yellow armband, the colors of his flag, with his dark suit.
“The foreign order that we have accumulated here to protect is being shredded before our eyes,” Blinken said. “We cannot, possibly wouldn’t allow, President Putin to get away with it. “
However, while the United Nations is perceived to be increasingly ineffective, it is unclear how world leaders are coping with multinational challenges.
Thursday’s General Assembly consultation convened to discuss peace and security in Ukraine and the issues of impunity and accountability. For the top delegations, this meant holding Russia responsible for the invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities committed in many Ukrainian cities and regions.
Moscow’s representative, however, said Ukraine enjoyed impunity and was blamed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used his comments to counter the war narrative, repeating Moscow’s claim that the clash was Ukraine’s fault because of what he called abuse and repression of Russian speakers and ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists have been. operating for several years. And he repeated the Russian claim that the big country is the one under military risk from Ukraine and its Western backers.
“Of course, the Kyiv regime,” Lavrov said, implicitly refusing the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, “owes its impunity to its Western sponsors, first of all Germany and France, but also the United States.
“Especially cynical are the states that fill Ukraine with weapons and exercise their soldiers,” he said, aiming to “prolong the struggle as much as imaginable despite casualties and destruction, to exhaust and weaken Russia. “
There were rumors among U. S. officials that Lavrov would not attend the referendum in the face of the expected avalanche of criticism. He gave the impression a while before his turn to speak and left immediately afterwards.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who recently took office when Liz Truss appointed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to upgrade, described Lavrov’s description of the war as “Russian catalogues of distortion, dishonesty and disinformation. “
During a search, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said after Lavrov left the chamber that Russian diplomats gave the impression of fleeing as temporarily as his soldiers. This is a reference to reports of mass troop defections deployed through Putin before Ukrainian advances.
Biden’s management has sought to bolster Western-led efforts to arm, train and Ukraine in its war with Russia. Some countries that rely on Russian weapons or fuel, such as India, have been reluctant.
In speeches Thursday, Blinken and others described the war as a tragedy that goes beyond Ukraine and Europe, affecting the South and countries in Asia and Africa that were starved of food when Russia blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and its shipments of millions. tons of grains, fertilizers and cooking oil.
“Globally, the shock has amplified a triple food, fuel and currency crisis,” U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in convening the meeting.
“This plunges millions more people into extreme poverty and hunger and reverses years of progress,” he said, bringing up conditions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis.
According to Guterres, Blinken and other diplomats, Russia’s violation of the United Nations Charter and its basic documents, using force to remove a sovereign neighboring country, is particularly critical. President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced Putin’s abuses and abuses. He advised that Russia be stripped of its veto power in the Security Council.
But no such action was taken on Thursday and it is unclear whether there is a mechanism in place to remove those powers. to block punitive moves that oppose it.
“Defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is much more than protecting a country’s right to go its own way, no matter how basic that right is,” Blinken said Thursday. strength.
“If we don’t protect this precept when the Kremlin is violating it so flagrantly, we are sending the message to the aggressors that they can forget about it too,” he continued. “We are putting each and every country at risk. opening the door to a less safe and less violent world. “
Blinken and others noted that, far from fleeing or seeking a diplomatic solution, Putin opted this week to order tens of thousands more Russians to sign up for the war just as world leaders were meeting at the UN.
“This is a war you will win,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, addressing Putin without naming him. “Stop sending more of your own citizens to their deaths. . . Stop spreading hunger in the world. . . Stop paralyzing this [UN] body. “
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.
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