UN General Assembly: Abbas tells leaders to end war in Gaza

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib has called for an immediate cease-fire and has warned that the crisis in Lebanon is a threat to the entire region.

"The crisis in Lebanon threatens the entire Middle East," Bouhabib said. "We wish today to reiterate our call for a cease-fire on all fronts."

Bouhabib welcomed efforts by the United States and France to move urgently toward a cease-fire before the situation spiraled out of control.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has defended Western arms deliveries and support for Ukraine to help defend itself from Russia’s ongoing invasion.

"The idea that if there were no defensive weapons, there would be no fighting and no dying in Ukraine is as simple as it is wrong," Baerbock said at the UN General Assembly in New York.

"We have seen that and we have seen what happened in June when Ukraine invited Russia to an international peace summit. Instead of stopping his attack and coming to the negotiating table, Putin sent his response by bombing a children’s hospital," Baerbock said.

"As long as Putin is not willing to come to the negotiation table, stopping our support for self-defense would simply mean leaving Ukraine’s children's hospitals defenseless," Baerbock stressed.

"It would mean more war crimes, not less," Germany’s top diplomat said.

Baerbock called on UN member states to support efforts to call on Putin to cease his attacks and enter into negotiations.

The war in Ukraine and the escalating conflict in the Middle East have been at the center of speeches and discussions in New York.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has added his voice to calls for a cross-border cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, Starmer urged both sides, avoid catastrophe, and agree to a cease-fire amid escalating clashes across the Lebanon border.

"I call on Israel and Hezbollah: Stop the violence. Step back from the brink. We need to see an immediate cease-fire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement," he said in his first speech at the UN General Assembly.

Starmer warned that the alternative is "more suffering for innocent people on all sides and the prospect of a wider war that no one can control and with consequences that none of us can foresee."

Starmer also called for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during his address at the United Nations General Assembly that peace with Azerbaijan was "within reach."

"Today I want to say that peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan not only is possible but is within reach," Pashinyan said.

"All we need to do is reach out and take it," he added.

"The pain is very deep and intense, but we must now focus on peace because peace is the only truth understandable to the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan," he said.

The former Soviet republics have experienced decades of war and tension over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan rushed in forces last year and seized the region, forcing the population of nearly 120,000 people to flee to Armenia.

Pashinyan said he was ready to meet Baku’s demand of transportation access to the exclave of Nakhchivan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to "engage in a direct dialogue" with the opposition following July's contested election.

"The regime may try to obscure the results, but the Venezuelan people have spoken," Blinken said at a ministerial meeting on Venezuela on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. "Now, our job is to ensure their voices are heard."

The meeting, co-hosted by Argentina and the US, was also attended by representatives from the EU, France, Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Maduro claimed victory in Venezuela's presidential elections on July 28. The country's electoral council said he won 52% of the vote, but the opposition released polling station data, saying it showed that their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, won by a landslide.

The election's aftermath has seen a crackdown on protests and political opponents.

Blinken said Maduro must be urged "to engage in a direct dialogue with Venezuela's united democratic opposition that leads to a peaceful return to democracy."

"We must continue to call on the Maduro regime to stop its repression of peaceful protesters, stop its repression of political opponents, immediately and unconditionally release all those who've been arbitrarily detained — including children," Blinken said.

Sudan's army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan has used his address at the UN General Assembly to attack the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accusing them of blocking peace efforts.

A power struggle between Burhan's Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has been raging in Sudan for more than a year.

Burhan called for the RSF should be designated a terrorist group, and said they were committing "ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, and genocide."

He also said states in the region were providing support to the RSF in the form of funding, mercenaries and weapons. Burhan did not name the counties, but his government has repeatedly accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying arms.

The general's speech came as the Sudanese army launched airstrikes on the capital, Khartoum, in a bid to capture areas controlled by the RSF.

The war in Sudan has forced more than 10 million people from their homes, creating the world's largest displacement crisis, according to the UN.

Burhan said he was committed to pursuing peace and transitioning toward a civilian government, but he said the militias must also lay down their weapons and withdraw from the territory they currently occupy.  

"The SAF ... is very much in favor of a democratic transition and it's committed to the right of the Sudanese people to pick their leadership," he said.

Following the speech, General Dagalo of the RSF said his faction was ready to implement a nationwide cease-fire and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. 

Burhan's army and the RSF had jointly led a coup to depose the first democratic transition authority established after strongman Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019.

The coordinator of Haiti's transitional council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, has said he would support "a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the UN," to tackle the crisis in his country.

"Today Haiti is facing an unprecedented security crisis," he said. "The increase of armed gangs, generalized violence and political instability have plunged the nation into a state of extreme vulnerability."

More than 700,000 people have been displaced by gang violence in the Caribbean state, according to the UN, while criminal groups control an estimated 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Currently, a Kenyan-led multinational policing operation is tasked with combating the insecurity. But the security support force has struggled to attract sufficient funds.

Leblanc said shifting from the security mission into a peacekeeping one under the UN flag could ensure a reliable source of funding and help "to strengthen the commitment of member states to security in Haiti."

"I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognizing that the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission in Haiti," he said.

The previous UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti deployed from 2004 to 2017 was plagued by allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers. Around 10,000 people also died after the force accidentally introduced cholera. 

The head of Haiti's transitional council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, has told delegates at the UN that he was grateful to those who had shown solidarity toward Haitian migrants, especially in the US town of Springfield, Ohio.

Springfield has made international headlines in recent weeks after US Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, made baseless claims that migrants in the town were eating their neighbors' cats and dogs. Local officials have repeatedly said there is no evidence to support the claims.

"I would like to extend a brotherly greeting to all friends of Haiti that have shown solidarity towards the migrants from our country ... in particular, those living in Springfield, Ohio," Leblanc said.

"The passions that naturally arise during an election campaign should never serve as a pretext for xenophobia or racism in a country such as the United States — a country forged by immigrants from all countries."

Leblanc added that Haitian immigrants have long played a significant role in American society.

Springfield, which is home to around 15,000 Haitian Americans, has faced bomb threats to schools and other facilities following the false claims. US President Joe Biden has also called on Trump to stop spreading falsehoods about the Haitian community.

The chair of Yemen's internationally recognized government-in-exile, Rashad al-Alimi, has cautioned against minimizing the role of Iran in destabilizing Yemen and the wider Middle East.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly, al-Alimi said more needed to be done to stop the flow of Iranian weapons and to dry up sources of funding for the Houthi rebels that have taken over large portions of Yemen. 

Without these actions, he said, these militias won't engage in peace efforts, "and they will not refrain from blackmailing the regional and international communities."

The Iran-backed Houthis, based in Yemen, have been attacking international commercial ships in the Red Sea since the war between Israel and Hamas began last year, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.

"The stability of Yemen is decisive to safeguard peace and stability in the region and trade routes in the Arabian and Red Seas," al-Alimi said.

"The brutal Israeli war on the Palestinian people should cease immediately. This is the first step to achieve peace and to eliminate Iran's proxies, which are escalating the situation in the region," he added.

The Houthis took control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2014, and now control much of the country's west. A Saudi-led coalition has been trying to restore the Yemeni government's rule since 2015.

The country's internationally recognized government is now based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank but not the Gaza Strip, has called on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel.

"Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank," he said.

He said Palestinians were being "subjected to one of the most heinous crimes of our era, it is the crime of a full-scale war, of genocide, that Israel is perpetrating." 

The International Court of Justice is investigating a case filed by South Africa alleging that Israel is committing "genocidal acts" in its Gaza offensive, breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly denied the accusation.

Abbas said the war had killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza alone and injured tens of thousands of others. The conflict began after Hamas-led militants launched a terror attack against Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. 

"Hundreds of Palestinian families have been annihilated," he said. "Thousands have died because of the spread of disease and epidemics and the shortages in medicine and water."

He said Israel had destroyed the Gaza Strip "almost entirely," saying the territory was "no longer fit for life."

Abbas also accused Israel of "launching a new aggression" on Lebanon, which has been hit by waves of Israeli strikes in recent days.  

"We condemn this aggression, and we demand that it stops immediately," he said.

Kenyan President William Ruto has told the UN General Assembly that his country will send additional police officers to Haiti to help the government there tackle armed gangs.

"I must emphasize ... that Kenya will deploy the additional contingent towards attaining the target of all the 2,500 police officers by  January next year," the Kenyan president said in his speech.

Kenya had previously pledged to lead the multinational force with 1,000 police officers.

Ruto also used his speech to appeal for more funding to support the mission to fight widespread lawlessness in the Caribbean state.

Criminal gangs currently control more than 80% of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

The leaders speaking on the third day of the UN General Assembly include Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose appearance comes as Israel continues its military campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.  

The head of Sudan's military, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, is also to deliver a speech on Thursday, as his troops launch airstrikes in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in a bid to regain ground from rebel forces. 

Annalena Baerbock, Germany's foreign minister, is also expected to speak at the gathering, along with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Council President Charles Michel.

The UN General Assembly runs until Monday.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden delivered his final UN speech at the meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak on Friday.

nm/msh (Reuters, AP, AFP)