UNITED NATIONS, 17 September 2005 — The United Nations 60th anniversary summit ended yesterday, with the three-day event attended by a record 151 world leaders. News was made mostly from the sidelines, rather than from the speaker’s podium, where a leader from each country gave a 15-minute speech. Iran’s nuclear intentions and rare Israeli-Arab contacts following the Gaza were the sideline showstoppers.
Central themes did run through leaders’ speeches: The global war on terror, fighting poverty and world health.
Saudi Crown Prince Sultan called for the renewal and implementation of the King Abdullah peace initiative, and for the creation of an international center to counter terrorism.
Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday called for “zero tolerance’’ against extremism. He said his kingdom was working to promote moderate Islam across the globe.
King Abdallah also called for the Muslim community to oppose extremist interpretations of Islam. “Jordan wants true, moderate, traditional Islam to replace fundamentalist, radical and militant Islam everywhere in the world for every single Muslim,” he said before the world body.
Referring to what the Amman declaration, he sought to clarify the true nature of Islam. The king said the declaration exposed the illegitimacy of extremist fatwas (edicts) justifying terrorism, which contravene the traditional schools of Islamic religious law and are in clear violation of Islam’s core principles. The declaration also condemns the practice known as takfir (calling others apostates), a practice that is used by extremists to justify violence against those who do not agree with them.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with the king, their first talks in months in a further sign of warming relations between the Jewish state and the Arab world after Israel’s Gaza withdrawal.
The meeting, on the sidelines of the summit, was Israel’s latest diplomatic reward for ending its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip — its first evacuation of territory Palestinians claim for a future state.
In just two weeks, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia have held high-level public meetings with Israel — a rare event for Muslim countries — and Sharon has received particular praise at the UN summit for the Gaza pullout, deemed a “courageous” act by US President George W. Bush as well as Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
A day after Crown Prince Sultan called for putting restrictions on the use of veto power by the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for a Security Council that reflects the realities of a changing world, with more Asian seats. He also demanded an end to the veto power of the big five.
Yudhoyono’s comments added to demands by developing countries for a bigger voice in the world body, now dominated by the United States and its fellow permanent Security Council members — Russia, China, Britain and France.
Saying that he spoke for 4.5 billion people in Asia and Africa, the Indonesian leader said UN reforms under consideration should make the world body more democratic.
“We need a reformed Security Council with a membership that is reflective of global realities. The Asia-Pacific region, home to more than half the human race and cradle of ancient civilizations and religions, should have more seats on the council,” Yudhoyono said.
In addition, he said, “We must do away with the right of veto, which often paralyzes the Council.”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met late Thursday with Secretary-General Kofi Annan and negotiators from three European countries on his country’s nuclear program, hours after an Iranian announcement that Tehran is willing to provide other Islamic nations with nuclear technology.
Ahmadinejad was to respond to a European demand for Iran to halt uranium enrichment in a speech to the General Assembly today, the opening day of its annual ministerial meeting.
According to European diplomats and officials, Ahmadinejad may offer to put Iran’s nuclear activities under broader international supervision but will not give up Tehran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful uses.
