World Leaders Address Crises in Middle East, Call for 2-State Solution at 78th UN General Assembly

Iran’s President Raisi called for revenge against the US in his speech, while US President Biden mentioned Iran only once

Leaders from the Middle East and around the world are taking part in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations on Friday that Israel was “on the cusp” of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia and that Palestinians should not get to “veto” the move.

I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough—an historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia

Addressing the General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu said agreements in 2020 to establish formal ties with three other Arab states had already “heralded the dawn of a new age of peace.”

“But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough—an historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the Israeli prime minister said.

“Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will encourage other Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu firmly rejected the assertion of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in his own UN speech on Thursday, that there could be no peace in the Middle East without a Palestinian state.

“We must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states,” Netanyahu said. “The Palestinians could greatly benefit from a broader peace. They should be part of that process. But they should not have a veto over the process.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took to the podium Thursday night, telling the world that peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without securing the rights of Palestinians.

Israel is violating the relevant United Nations resolutions and has renounced the Oslo Accords

He warned Israel against turning the political struggle into “religious strife,” a reference to incursions by Israeli security forces on Muslim and Christian holy sites and attacks on churches, mosques, and clergy ranging from vandalism to assaults.

“Israel is violating the relevant United Nations resolutions and has renounced the Oslo Accords, and we still have hope for implementing your decisions to end the Israeli occupation of our land,” Abbas said.

The veteran 87-year-old leader made a new appeal for negotiations and urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to call an international conference on creating a Palestinian state.

The conference “may be the last opportunity to keep the two-state solution possible, and to prevent the situation from deteriorating more seriously,” he said.

Abbas demanded “practical steps” to recognize a State of Palestine as a full UN member.

An Israeli diplomat walked out of the General Assembly as Abbas denounced the international “impunity” for Israel over its “apartheid” policies, a characterization that infuriates Israel.

“Its racist, terrorist settlers continue to intimidate and kill our people, to destroy homes and property, to steal our money and resources,” Abbas said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said afterward that Abbas had proved he was “no partner for peace and that he is totally detached from reality and irrelevant.”

Speaking at the opening session on Tuesday, President Joe Biden affirmed the importance of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that the US is working “tirelessly to find a just and lasting solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians for two states for two peoples.”

In addition to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, President Biden’s speech addressed issues such as Russia’s war on Ukraine, climate change, and the future of democracy around the world. The US president also spoke about fentanyl abuse, artificial intelligence, terrorism, arms control, and human rights, including women’s rights and LGBT rights.

Together, these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof the world

On the topic of climate, President Biden pointed to recent natural disasters such as heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and the flooding in Libya earlier this month, urging more action to combat climate change and its effects.

“Together, these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof the world,” he said. Under his administration, he said, “the United States has treated this crisis as the existential threat from the moment we took office, not only for us but for all of humanity.”

Several major leaders skipped the opening session, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping, effectively leaving the stage to President Biden. The American president used the opportunity to reach out to the so-called global south—the historically unaligned developing nations that his advisers call the “swing states” of the foreign policy world—to enlist them to the American stance on the threats that Russia and China pose to the international system.

On Wednesday, President Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two world leaders have clashed over Netanyahu’s controversial plan to reshape Israel’s judiciary.

In a briefing before the meeting, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the American and Israeli leaders would “discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues focused on the shared democratic values between our two countries and a vision for a more stable and prosperous and integrated region” and would “compare notes on effectively countering and deterring Iran.”

Roughly 150 people gathered outside Manhattan’s Loews Regency Hotel, where Netanyahu is staying, to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Several hundred also gathered to protest the judicial overhaul proposed by Netanyahu’s government.

In his speech, President Biden pointed to the newly announced plan to build a shipping corridor connecting India with the Middle East and Europe. The plan was first publicized at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month.

“This is part of our effort to build a more sustainable, integrated Middle East,” President Biden said of the shipping corridor, which will include Israel. “It demonstrates how Israel’s greater normalization and economic connection with its neighbors is delivering positive and practical impacts.”

The US president mentioned Iran only once in his speech. “We’re working with our partners to address Iran’s destabilizing activities that threaten regional and global security and remain steadfast in our commitment that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Hours after President Biden made his passing mention of Iran, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi also spoke at the General Assembly. His speech came a day after Iran and the US reached a deal to free five Americans held in Iran. But Raisi showed no signs of seeking further reconciliation with the US.

The blood of the oppressed will not be forgotten

He repeated Iran’s threats to take revenge on those who had ordered and executed the killing of Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, in Iraq in 2020.  “The blood of the oppressed will not be forgotten,” he said.

Soleimani was killed by a targeted US drone strike in January 2020. Iran retaliated by launching a ballistic missile attack against American military bases in Iraq. More than 100 US soldiers suffered concussions as a result of the attack.

Iranian officials have made similar threats of revenge in the past, but this one may take on added weight, seeing as it was made by the country’s president at one of the most prominent international forums with world leaders in attendance. In his speech to the Assembly last year, Raisi held up a picture of Soleimani and said he was a hero to many people in the Middle East and that President Donald Trump should face trial for ordering his killing.

US law enforcement officials have said in the past that they have detected serious threats from Iran against former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

As Raisi vowed revenge on Tuesday, a lone US representative in the assembly hall took notes.

President Biden’s choice to mention Iran only once in his speech, in the context of the country’s nuclear program, and to avoid mention of other contentious issues with Iran, such as its sale of drones to Russia and violations of human rights, appeared to reflect efforts to defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Raisi did not reciprocate the tone. He repeatedly slammed the US for its policies toward Iran and called Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran an “egregious crime.” The US sanctions that followed Trump’s decision to withdraw “have not yielded the desired results, and it’s time for the US to change their course,” he said.

Iran entered the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran agreed to put limits on its nuclear program and to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor its nuclear facilities. In return, Iran received relief from international sanctions. The US unilaterally left JCPOA in 2018, prompting Iran to stop adhering to many of the deal’s terms. Numerous rounds of indirect talks since President Joe Biden took office early in 2021 have failed to restore the agreement.

Raisi left the door open to returning to some version of the nuclear deal, calling on Washington to make its aims clear. He reiterated Iran’s position that it was not seeking nuclear weapons.

Raisi also said that Western intelligence agencies had plotted to destabilize Iran and blamed last year’s women-led uprising on the US and the West more generally.

Mass protests rocked Iran last year after the September 2022 death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police. She had been detained for not wearing a hijab properly. The government put down the demonstrations with brutal violence, killing more than 500 protesters, including teenagers and girls, and arresting tens of thousands.

In the past few weeks, as the anniversary of Amini’s death approached, the government launched a new wave of crackdowns, arresting dozens of activists, dissidents, journalists, and family members of people killed in protests last year.

On Tuesday, Raisi called Western reporting on those events “fake” and “distorted,” and claimed the protests were part of an “immediate and psychological war” being waged by the West against Iran.

As Raisi began his address to the Assembly, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan stood in protest, holding a sign that read, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”

Raisi, whose country has faced an uprising for democratic change, said that the West’s liberal democracy had failed to fulfill its promises. He presented Iran’s theocracy as an alternative, calling it a model of stability and strength. “Any type of foreign presence not only is not part of the solution; it is the problem itself,” he said.

He pointed to Islamic teachings about justice and fighting oppression and said that men and women were “equal in the eyes of the Creator.”

He complained of Islamophobia in the West, citing Quran burnings and bans on wearing the hijab. He described Islamophobia as a way to divert attention from the West’s own failings. “The fires of disrespect will not overcome the divine truth,” he said.

Other leaders from across the Middle East used their platform at the General Assembly to address Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, among other issues.

No architecture for regional security and development can stand over the burning ashes of this [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict

King Abdullah II of Jordan said the Middle East will continue to suffer until the world helps resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he called “the central issue in the Middle East.” “No architecture for regional security and development can stand over the burning ashes of this conflict,” he said.

He criticized Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscation, and home demolitions as policies that reduce trust in “global justice.”

Abdullah said that Jordan remains committed to safeguarding Jerusalem’s identity, with the Jordanian ruling family continuing to provide custodianship for Muslim and Christian holy sites in the city.

His speech also addressed the Syrian refugee crisis. Abdullah affirmed that Jordan would protect itself against any threats that the Syrian crisis could pose to the country’s national security.

Even as he reiterated that the future for Syrian refugees is in their home country, not in host countries, he also called for dignified treatment of refugees. He said that Jordan is serious about its duty to help those in need.

Noting waning international attention towards refugees, Abdullah said, “Is the international community going to watch as refugee families find themselves forced to send their children to work instead of school?”

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called on the International Criminal Court (ICJ) to give an advisory opinion on “the Israeli practices that affect human rights on occupied Palestinian territories.”

He referenced a December 2022 UN General Assembly resolution seeking such an opinion, which passed by a vote of 87 to 26 with 53 abstentions. The resolution called on the ICJ to give a formal opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s policy of “occupation, settlement and annexation.”

The Hague-based ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the top UN court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them. The ICJ last weighed in on the issue of Israel’s occupation in 2004, when it ruled that Israel’s separation barrier in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal.

“By giving an advisory opinion regarding the Israeli practices that affect human rights on occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, we aspire towards a victory and to honor the combat of the Palestinian people who have suffered so much and who have sacrificed so much living under occupation,” Tebboune said.

It is not acceptable for the Palestinian people to remain prisoners of the Israeli settler occupation arbitrariness

Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani also called for support for the Palestinians in his speech to the Assembly on Tuesday.

“It is not acceptable for the Palestinian people to remain prisoners of the Israeli settler occupation arbitrariness,” Tamim said.

He said the failure of international organizations to adequately address the conflict provides Israel with the opportunity “to undermine the foundations of the two-state solution by means of settlement expansion.”

Tamim also criticized Israel’s attacks on holy sites in Jerusalem, heavy-handed treatment of Palestinians, and restrictions in the Gaza Strip.

He said that Doha provides political, humanitarian, and development support to the “brotherly Palestinian people” and contributes towards rebuilding Gaza, which is “reeling under the siege.”

In addition to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tamim also spoke about ongoing crises across the Middle East and the world.

He said that the humanitarian crisis in Syria “is still awaiting a comprehensive settlement through a political process leading to a political transition.”

He called for an end to the civil war in Sudan and for the perpetrators to be held to account. “We condemn the crimes perpetrated against civilians in the capital Khartoum and Darfur region,” he said. He affirmed Qatar’s support for “dialogue between the Sudanese political forces about the future of Sudan, with only one army, charged with protecting rather than ruling the country.”

On the political situation in Lebanon, Tamim stressed the need for a “sustainable solution” and the formation of a government capable of addressing the country’s economic and developmental crisis.

He spoke on the situations in Yemen, Libya, and Afghanistan, and on the recent reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. He called for a “radical peaceful solution” to end the war in Ukraine.

It is implausible for us to get distracted by an idiot or a biased person whenever it occurs to him to provoke us by burning the Holy Quran

Tamim also discussed recent incidents of Quran burnings in various European countries, dismissing them as trivial. “It is implausible for us to get distracted by an idiot or a biased person whenever it occurs to him to provoke us by burning the Holy Quran,” he said.

While noting that such deliberately provocative acts should not be seen as examples of freedom of expression, he also described the Quran as “too holy to be desecrated by a witless person.”

Addressing the Assembly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the UN Security Council has ceased to be a guarantor of world security and has instead become “a battleground for the political strategies” of its five permanent members.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke about the two-state solution, calling it “the only path to lasting peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis,” according to the Jordan News Agency. He called for an end to violence and unilateral actions that undermine peace.

Guterres also warned in his speech of a world that is becoming “unhinged” as geopolitical tensions rise and countries seem incapable of coming together to respond to mounting global challenges.