After days focused on Ukraine, other worries rise at UN: Other conflicts and issues are starting to emerge after the crisis in Ukraine preoccupied world leaders at the United Nations for three days. Some of these issues are long-running, worldwide issues that have recently lost the public’s attention.
In an address on that conflict on Thursday, Israel’s prime leader demanded the creation of a Palestinian state. On Friday, the Palestinian president talks.
Others are newly escalating regional conflicts. For example, immediately following the most significant escalation of hostilities between the two rivals in two years.
The prime minister of Armenia issued a warning that “the possibility of future aggression by Azerbaijan remains very high.”
The ex-Soviet nations are at odds over Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan that has been ruled by ethnic Armenian forces with support from Armenia since the end of a separatist war there in 1994.
On Friday, leaders from Pakistan and Iraq will speak. Although both countries are essential to the geopolitical world order, they have recently garnered less attention from the rest.
Each nation has the chance to voice its worries and hopes during the UN General Assembly’s yearly gathering of leaders. But, as governments have lamented how the battle has upended the geopolitical order, repeatedly raised the danger of nuclear catastrophe, and sparked food and energy crises.
The summit this year has thus far placed a significant emphasis on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war.
A Security Council meeting on Thursday featured a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. It was a rare, if brief, meeting in which the top diplomats of two countries at war were present and trading jabs and accusations—though not directly with one another.
The United States requested that other countries tell Russia to stop making nuclear threats and to put an end to “the tragedy” of its conflict during the summit. Vladimir Putin’s administration has defended the invasion by claiming that Kyiv has oppressed Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine.
After insisting that his soldiers would win the war and calling for more decisive UN action. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the assembled leaders via video the day before the Security Council meeting.
The General Assembly permitted Zelenskyy to appear remotely without traveling outside his wartime country. Russia disagreed with this decision.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid spoke about the Palestinians as he was speaking in the assembly hall.
Before the elections on November 1, Lapid appeared to be attempting to position himself as a statesman and a moderate option to his primary competitor. Conservative former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in both the eyes of Israelis and world leaders.
Lapid said a two-state solution is preferable for Israel’s security, economy, and children’s future.
Lapid, who has long supported for a two-state solution, had few specifics and little hope for his plan.
Parties opposed to Palestinian independence currently hold the majority of seats in Israel’s parliament. And surveys indicate that the 2018 elections will produce a similar outcome.
The West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are the areas that the Palestinians want for an independent state; Israel took over these areas in 1967.