Arab News | Comoros president: Middle East wars are weakening UN

LONDON: The United Nations is being weakened by the Iran war, Israeli conflicts and the deaths of civilians across the Middle East, the president of Arab League nation Comoros told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

“Allowing the conflict in the Middle East to continue directly weakens the United Nations by calling into question its ability to maintain world peace, and by undermining its credibility amongst the peoples we represent,” Azali Assoumani said.

Comoros, an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean with a population of around 900,000, has been particularly effected by the economic fallout from the Iran conflict, he told delegates at the UN headquarters in New York.

The war with the US, which restricted one of the world’s key trade routes, threatens the food and energy security of countries like Comoros, which are highly dependent on imports, the president said.

“This demands greater international solidarity, given this shared insecurity,” he said.

Assoumani, whose nation is among the many Arab League countries who still have no diplomatic relations with Israel, said the Iran conflict had spread to Syria and Lebanon “as a result of Israeli military operations.”

He said the “genocide in Palestine” had continued since last years’ UN General Assembly and that “an entire population stands on the brink of extermination.”

The international community, he added, would only regain credibility by taking “urgent action” and, ultimately, by implementing UN resolutions leading to a two state solution, with Israel and Palestine, coexisting peacefully.

Assoumani also raised the longstanding dispute between Comoros and France over the island of Mayotte, which remains under French control.