For the past week, New York once again became the temporary capital of the world. Motorcades choked midtown streets, police barricades redirected commuters, and diplomats filed into the green-marbled hall of the UN to deliver their allotted 15-minute appeals to the international community.
The General Assembly’s annual debate is, at its best, a barometer of the global mood. This year, it was consumed by Gaza.
Algeria, the final Arab state to address the assembly, voiced support on Monday, the closing day of the UN General Assembly, for US-brokered negotiations to end the war in Gaza, while cautioning that the Palestinian cause faced its “greatest threat ever” from annexation and displacement.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf told member states the question of Palestine is as old as the UN itself, citing more than 1,000 resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and close to 100 Security Council resolutions.
UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh said on Saturday that “nothing can justify targeting tens of thousands of civilians or besieging them and forcibly displacing them”.
Nor “can anything excuse the pursuit of unacceptable expansionist ambitions, including the threat of annexing the West Bank”, she added.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan denounced “the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza”, condemning “the brutal and unchecked practices of the occupying forces, including starvation, forced displacement and systematic killing”.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi called for the UN to place sanctions on Israel.
“For too long, this conflict has persisted, the suffering has grown unbearable, and the time has come to end the occupation, to undo the injustice, and to restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people through the implementation of the two-state solution,” he said.
As attention shifts to Washington and the Trump administration’s latest Gaza peace plan, the days ahead will reveal whether the rhetoric in New York translates into action or fades into another round of deadlock.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Palestinian officials stood ready to work with Mr Trump and Arab countries in bringing an end to the war.
“Let us not delay a single minute more in doing what is necessary for this just peace to replace the unbearable reality of today,” Mr Mansour said during a Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
Mr Trump unveiled on Monday a 21-point plan to end the nearly two-year war, free hostages held by Hamas and disarm the Palestinian militants.
He had discussed the plan with Arab and Islamic leaders in New York last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
It doesn’t include the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and includes the establishment of an international security force to take over law enforcement in postwar Gaza.
“We have just come through a week of speeches, theatre and spectacle, now it is the time to step away from the stage and face reality,” Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon told Security Council members on Monday.
