President John Dramani Mahama has used his address at the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Meeting in New York to reiterate Ghana’s commitment to a Two-State solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict.
“Ghana remains unwavering in its recognition of the sovereign State of Palestine and its steadfast support for a viable Two-State solution, where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace, security, and guaranteed borders,” he stated.
He added: “At the same time, we condemn all acts of terrorism by Hamas that triggered this conflict. We insist that all parties unconditionally respect international humanitarian law. Our moral standards cannot be selective.”
President Mahama said as they healed historical wounds, they must address the alarming breakdown of global order today.
“We are witnessing a dangerous drift toward unilateralism, lawlessness, and the erosion of multilateral norms,” he pointed out.
He said the United Nations must learn from the lessons of the League of Nations. The President said the UN Charter must reign supreme over the cynical doctrine that “might makes right.
He said the veto power must never serve as a license for impunity.
President Mahama said sovereign equality could not be a privilege reserved only for nations aligned with global superpowers.
“Nowhere is this crisis of credibility more painful than in the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and the occupied territories,” he said.
He added: “We must stop using diplomatic euphemisms to veil the human carnage taking place in Gaza. How many more innocent lives must be lost before the world acts with decisive moral authority?”
He noted that the blood of five-year-old Hind Rajab, and the more than 20,000 children killed in this brutal conflict, cries out to the conscience of the world.
He said collective punishment, enforced starvation, and mass displacement were flagrant violations of international law.
President Mahama said in that same spirit of international legality and human solidarity, Ghana reiterates its call for the immediate lifting of the decades-long economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed on Cuba.
He said the world must support Cuba’s new Economic and Social Programme.
President Mahama said measures that inflict collective economic hardship on ordinary citizens run counter to their shared commitment to human dignity and international law.
“We must likewise elevate our global response to the catastrophic conflict in Sudan, which is reported to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” the President said.
“We must also exercise solidarity with nations facing the terrorist scourge, especially the Alliance of Sahel States.”
President Mahama said the current Middle East crisis was having a deleterious effect on the world economy.
“We call for a return to the negotiating table. And let me add that no human civilisation deserves to be annihilated, certainly not a member state of the United Nations.”
President Mahama said that he believed that dialogue could resolve even the most intractable of problems.
He said across every conflict, whether in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa, the standard must remain uniform: respect sovereign integrity, protect civilians, ensure unhindered humanitarian access, and hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable.
GNA
