NEW YORK: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community Thursday, particularly the United States, to stop sending weapons to Israel to end the bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza.
Abbas, speaking to the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, singled out the U.S. because of its arms shipments and vetoes of Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s nearly yearlong war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel,” Abbas said. “This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”
He said the U.S., in exercising its veto power in Security Council votes, effectively said, “’No, the fighting is going to continue.’”
In another U.N. address, Edgard Leblanc Fils, the president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council, announced that he supports a U.N. peacekeeping mission to fight gang violence that is still overwhelming authorities in the island nation in the Caribbean.
It was the first time that a Haitian government official had expressed public approval of a peacekeeping mission since the U.S. broached the idea earlier this month as one way to secure more resources for a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenya that officials say lacks personnel and funding.
“I am convinced that this change of status, whilst recognizing the errors of the past cannot be repeated, would guarantee the full success of the mission,” Leblanc told the General Assembly.
On Wednesday, Leblanc met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others to talk about the state of the mission, which began when the first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in Haiti in late June.
Nearly 400 Kenyan officers are now in Haiti, joined by nearly two dozen police officers and soldiers from Jamaica. The number of officers falls significantly short of the 2,500 pledged by various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados, for the mission.
The mandate of the current mission expires soon and must be renewed by this coming Wednesday.
“We would like to see a thought being given to transforming the security support mission into a peacekeeping mission under the mandate of the U.N.,” Leblanc said.
(VOA)
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