Representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program in the final declaration on Saturday of a summit that brought together some of the world's staunchest foes of the US.
The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned terrorism -- with exceptions for movements for self-determination and battles against foreign occupiers.
And while declaring democracy to be a universal value, the movement said no one country or region should define it for the whole world. The leaders mentioned Venezuela and Cuba in particular as they asserted the right of all countries to determine their own form of government.
The statements, many of which contain veiled criticisms of the US, were approved by unanimous consent after another round of speechmaking on Saturday night by leaders of the Nonaligned Movement.
"No one in the Nonaligned Movement thinks that the United States is responsible for all the problems, but many think that it is for some," Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.
An ailing Fidel Castro was named president of the movement, but he stayed home in his pajamas on doctors' orders while Acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the meeting of two-thirds of the world's nations.
Raul joined numerous US foes who said a bellicose US had made the world more dangerous.
"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."
Many demanded that the UN take action against the veto power of the five permanent Security Council members. Suggestions in the final declaration include expanding the council's membership or allowing council vetoes to be overruled by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.
"The US is turning the security council into a base for imposing its politics," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained.
"Why should people live under the nuclear threat of the US?," he said.
Some leaders tried to resolve disputes with their neighbors: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed Saturday to resume peace talks, and Bolivian President Evo Morales tried to reassure Brazilians angered by tough energy negotiations.
Others held onto hardline positions: North Korea defended its nuclear weapons program, Sudan's leader rejected a UN peacekeeping mission for Darfur and Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to develop nuclear energy.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN