UN: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for Iran’s isolation while welcoming another former adversary, North Korea, in from the cold in an unabashedly boastful speech to the United Nations General Assembly which provoked laughter from fellow leaders.
Hours before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was due to speak from the same rostrum, Trump denounced the clerical regime in Tehran for sowing “chaos, death and destruction” as he defended his decision to ditch an internationally brokered nuclear deal four months ago.
But after stunning the global body with his bellicose language on North Korea a year ago, including a threat to “totally destroy” Kim Jong Un’s state, Trump instead praised his one-time arch enemy for his “courage” as he hailed progress in fragile peace efforts with Pyongyang.
Since Trump came to power, promising that the world’s most powerful country would follow an “America First” foreign policy, there have been growing fears about the US commitment to multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.
In his speech at the opening of the assembly, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said trust in the rules-based global order and among states was “at a breaking point” and international cooperation becoming more difficult, without specifically mentioning Trump.
“Today, world order is increasingly chaotic. Power relations are less clear,” Guterres told the 193-nation assembly.
“Universal values are being eroded. Democratic principles are under siege,” he added just minutes before Trump was to take the podium.
Trump however robustly attacked the “globalist” view of the world and vowed that “America will never apologize for protecting its citizens.”
He said that the UN-backed International Criminal Court has “no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority” and said that his administration -- which has recently choked off aid to the Palestinians -- would only support “our friends” in the future.
Boasting that his team “has achieved more than any administration in the history of our country,” Trump was met with laughter, highly unusual in the solemn General Assembly.
“I didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay,” Trump responded.
But the most closely watched passage of his speech came when he turned to Iran.
“We cannot allow the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism to possess the planet’s most dangerous weapons,” Trump said, in an allusion to Tehran’s support for Islamic militant movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We cannot allow a regime that chants ‘Death to America’ and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on Earth,” he said.
“We ask all nations to isolate Iran’s regime as long as its aggression continues.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, addressing the assembled world leaders later, sharply criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran. He said he had “no need for a photo opportunity” with Trump and suggested the U.S. President’s pull back from global institutions was a character defect. “Confronting multilateralism is not a sign of strength. Rather it is a symptom of the weakness of intellect - it betrays an inability in understanding a complex and interconnected world,” he said.
“What Iran says is clear: no war, no sanctions, no threats, no bullying; just acting according to the law and the fulfillment of obligations,” Rouhani said. - AFP
Add new comment