Annan delivers emotional farewell

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered an emotional and searing farewell to world leaders on Tuesday, appealing for nations and peoples to unite to combat widespread contempt for human rights, religious divisions spawned by terrorist fears, brutal conflicts, and an unjust world economy.

Annan’s opening address to the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting hit many issues on the ambitious agenda that leaders of the UN’s 192 member nations confront – reviving a stalled Mideast peace process, curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, getting UN peacekeepers into conflict-wracked Darfur and promoting democracy. Trying to build bridges with people in the Middle East angry with the United States over Iraq and Lebanon, President George W.Bush assured skeptical Muslims he is not waging war with Islam and urged support for the people trying to transform the region and bring Mideast peace.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who was scheduled to speak to the body later Tuesday – was not in the hall during Bush’s address and skipped a lunch hosted by Annan attended by the US leader.Annan warned that “as long as the Palestinians live under occupation, exposed to daily frustration and humiliation, and as long as Israelis are blown up in buses or in dance halls, so long will passions everywhere be inflamed.”Failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israel’s 40-year occupation will continue to hurt the UN’s reputation and raise questions about its impartiality, he said.It will also stymie the UN’s best efforts to resolve other conflicts, “including those in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose peoples need our help just as badly, and are entitled to it,” he warned.Nampa-APTrying to build bridges with people in the Middle East angry with the United States over Iraq and Lebanon, President George W.Bush assured skeptical Muslims he is not waging war with Islam and urged support for the people trying to transform the region and bring Mideast peace.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who was scheduled to speak to the body later Tuesday – was not in the hall during Bush’s address and skipped a lunch hosted by Annan attended by the US leader.Annan warned that “as long as the Palestinians live under occupation, exposed to daily frustration and humiliation, and as long as Israelis are blown up in buses or in dance halls, so long will passions everywhere be inflamed.”Failure to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Israel’s 40-year occupation will continue to hurt the UN’s reputation and raise questions about its impartiality, he said.It will also stymie the UN’s best efforts to resolve other conflicts, “including those in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose peoples need our help just as badly, and are entitled to it,” he warned.Nampa-AP