By John J. MetzlerPowerful thunderclaps from the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan rumbled as a dire greeting to the opening UN General Assembly session in New York. Winds from ongoing but unresolved humanitarian crises the world over from Sudan to Syria and Somalia swirled. And a nervous atmosphere of widening conflicts, some still yet to happen, settled over assembled delegates.
In a gloomy but prescient opening address to the opening 79th annual Assembly, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated, “Our world is in a whirlwind…. Wars rage with no clue how they will end. Nuclear posturing and new weapons cast a dark shadow.”
He stresses, “We are heading towards the unimaginable, a powder keg that risks engulfing the world.”
If current world events were described in a political thriller the plot would be considered too far-fetched. But we are now living it! Add this to the contentious backdrop of an American presidential election campaign where the opposition candidate has been threatened with arrest and has faced two assassination attempts.
Usually opening UN sessions are a time of forced optimism and at least reserved hope. But these words from the UN chief are somber, sober and probably a little more realistic than we would wish to hear. Still the myriad of calamities from an expanded Gaza war, to exploding new fighting on the Lebanon/Israel frontier, to the grinding conflict in Ukraine set the stage.
The General Debate of speakers hosted calls for peace but have offered few solutions. U.S. President Joe Biden, in a political swan-song address offered the usual platitudes about political inflection points and mixed with a loopy autobiography of his career. There was painfully no mention of human rights in places like China or Iran. There was no talk of North Korea’s nuclear menace. Indeed, Biden offered no concrete plans for the future or solutions reflecting perhaps less his own vision than his Administration’s maladroit foreign policy.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the Assembly but with a far more somber tone; warning of the focused Russian threat to nuclear energy facilities and to Ukraine’s power grid. He criticized both Brazil and China advocating a one-sided ceasefire deal which would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia. Yet contrary to his video address to the UN two years ago which was often interrupted by applause and ended with a vigorous standing ovation, his speech received polite but not enthusiastic applause at the end. People, especially Ukrainians, are weary of this war.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer in his inaugural address to the UN stated, “Conflict touches more countries now… Than at any time in the history of this Assembly. Around the world, more fires are breaking out.” Later Sir Keir ventured crosstown to meet former President and GOP candidate Donald Trump for a friendly two-hour dinner.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni steered the discussions into uncomfortable waters; Recalling her proposal of a “global war against human trafficking.” She stressed that defeating “the slave trade of the third millennium” is possible through joint initiatives between police forces, intelligence services and judicial authorities to “follow the money.” Italy will use this plan to strengthen its cooperation with Latin America, she added, which addresses the “common denominator” tying organizations that profit from trafficking in persons and drugs.
But the expanding Lebanon crisis quickly seized center stage as the Assembly progressed.
Lebanon is a multidimensional victim; but let’s recall that despite having a nominal independent government, between its historic Christian and Muslim communities, Lebanon’s sovereignty has long been hijacked by the de facto Hizbullah military occupation of the South of the country bordering Israel. Hizbullah serves as a lethal cat’s-paw of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lebanon’s quasi-democratic central government in Beirut is powerless to oust them lest even insult them. A small but ineffective UN peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL) is stationed in southern Lebanon along the Blue Line to presumably prevent conflict. But Hizbullah’s swaggering impunity has predictably, albeit foolishly, attacked Israel. Now they will reap the whirlwind.
Secretary General Guterres said, “Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon.” During an emergency Security Council session, the U.S., Britain and France called for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon.
Currently far more that 60,000 Israeli civilians have fled from their homes in the North; and now hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are fleeing to the North. Israeli jets pounded Hizbullah military sites which are firing rockets into Israel. Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon said no other country would behave any differently as Israel, faced with attacks across its borders from north and south, “No nation would sit idly by as their citizens were attacked.”
There’s a confluence of global conflicts; some would call it a perfect storm.
John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014).
Free Press International
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