Cuban Foreign Minister says violations of the UN Charter and international law are now ‘facts of life’
Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla said the Israeli army has “slaughtered” more than 40,000 civilians in Gaza in the past 11 months. He also paid tribute to the more than 220 UN personnel killed in the conflict.
“The genocide against the Palestinian people must end unconditionally and without further delay,” he said.
Referring to the risk of escalation, he said that “Israel, with the complicity of the United States, has brought the world to the brink of a major world conflict,” adding that “the responsibility towards Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the people of the Middle East will have unpredictable consequences.”
Mr. Rodríguez Parrilla commented that, nearly 80 years after the United Nations was founded, “continued violations of the United Nations Charter and international law, aggression, interference in the internal affairs of countries and Imposing unilateral coercive measures for political purposes has become a fact of life.”
Global peace and security are being undermined by “extremist and expansionist doctrines of military domination.”
He said world military spending continues to increase for the ninth consecutive year, reaching $2.44 trillion by 2023 – a figure that also includes the development of new nuclear weapons.
He warned that there would be no peace without development, yet “developed countries, living on the same planet, blindly refuse to invest even minimally in prosperity and security of this planet”.
Furthermore, “the desire to achieve these Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are gone,” he continued, noting that the collective wealth of the world’s five richest people has increased while 5 billion people globally continue to live in poverty.
“With a tax on the assets of billionaires, two billion people could escape poverty,” Mr. Rodríguez Parrilla said.
Turning to the climate emergency, he recalled that scientists reported in July that the planet had experienced 13 consecutive months of record high temperatures.
“If capitalism’s irrational and unsustainable production and consumption patterns are not changed urgently and significantly, it will be impossible to limit the rise in global average temperatures further,” he said. 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.
He expressed hope that the meeting of governments at the UN COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan in November this year will adopt a new climate financing target.
Richer countries “will have new capacity to begin closing the climate finance gap and repaying their financial debts,” while developing countries “will have to design a full target that meets meet our own needs, with guarantees for development and social justice”.
He said the solution would certainly have to include the cancellation of foreign debt, “which has already been repaid many times over.”
Mr. Rodríguez Parrilla called for a “just, democratic international order” that, among other things, “ensures the common good and prosperity of all peoples in harmony with nature and governance.” sustainable management of natural resources to ensure the realization of all human rights for everyone”.
The minister also mentioned the nearly 65-year long economic and trade embargo of the United States against Cuba, which has caused “clear and undeniable” damage and affected the daily lives of the people. people.
Meanwhile, the inclusion of the Caribbean Island on the US State Department’s list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism is “a fraudulent designation, void of any international authority or authority ”.
