UNITED NATIONS: World leaders lined up at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to call on Israel to refrain from a full-scale war in Lebanon, with the organization’s chief warning the situation was on the “brink”.

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” US President Joe Biden said in his farewell address to the global body.

“In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security to allow the residents from both countries to return to their homes on the border safely,” Biden said.

Antonio Guterres cautioned against “the possibility of transforming Leba­non (into) another Gaza,” calling the situation in the Palestinian territory a “non-stop nightmare.” “We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The gathering in New York City comes a week after UNGA overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Pales­tinian territories within a year, a move Palestine hailed as “historic”.

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Biden also pushed for an elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, telling the global body it was time to “end this war”.

Mediator Qatar accused Israel of obstructing Gaza ceasefire talks, with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani saying “there is no Israeli partner for peace” under the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. However, he added, “We will continue our efforts of mediation to resolve the disputes through peaceful means.”

France called for an emergency Security Council meeting on the crisis, and EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned “we are almost in a full-fledged war”.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said his country was “not eager” for a ground invasion of Lebanon. “We don’t want to send our boys to fight in a foreign country,” he said.

In less than one year, Israeli forces have killed at least 41,467 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in Gaza Strip besides hundreds of people in Lebanon. Violence has raged across multiple fronts in the Middle East.

UN becoming ‘irrelevant’

Richard Gowan of the Inter­national Crisis Group think tank said he expected many leaders to “warn that the UN will become irrelevant globally if it cannot help make peace.”

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas took his seat alongside the Palestinian delegation, placed in alphabetical order for the first time after the delegation received upgraded privileges in May.

At the rostrum, Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday ruled out the forced displacement of Palestinians which he said would be a “war crime”. “The idea of Jordan as an alternative homeland (for Palestinians) will never happen,” he said.

‘Escalation is no country’s gain’

G7 nations warned on Monday that “no country stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

“Actions and counter-reactions risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence and dragging the entire Middle East into a broader regional conflict with unimaginable consequences,” a statement from the G7 foreign ministers said, calling for “a stop to the current destructive cycle”.

‘Not just kids, UN also dying in Gaza’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the UN for inaction on Gaza, which he said has turned into “the world’s largest children’s and women’s cemetery.”

“Not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza,” he told the UNGA. “The truth, the values that the West claims to defend are dying … I ask openly: Hey human rights organizations, aren’t those in Gaza and West Bank human beings?”

President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran condemned “senseless and incomprehensible” inaction by the UN against Israel.

Calling the Israeli attack “a crime of genocide”, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said, “The blatant aggression that befalls the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip today is the most barbaric, heinous and extensive aggression.”

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2024