Two years after his previous speech at the prestigious United Nations podium, when he warned against the “fracture of the world”, Emmanuel Macron spoke on Wednesday, September 25, before the UN General Assembly in New York to show his support for Ukraine, and to call on Tel Aviv to stop “the escalation in Lebanon” and on Lebanese Hezbollah to stop its fire on Israel.
Paris will continue to do everything to ensure that kyiv “holds firm”
France will do everything in its power to ensure that Ukraine can resist Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron told the UN. “France will continue to do everything in its power to ensure that Ukraine holds firm, gets out of danger and obtains justice,” he said, adding that Paris would continue “to provide it with equipment essential to its defense.”
Macron calls on Israel to “cease escalation in Lebanon” and Hezbollah to stop firing at Israel
On the risk of conflagration in the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to stop “the escalation in Lebanon” and on the Lebanese Hezbollah to stop its fire towards Israel. “We strongly call on Israel to stop the escalation in Lebanon and on Hezbollah to stop the fire,” he declared, considering that Israel could not “without consequences extend its operations in Lebanon.”
At the request of France, the Security Council must urgently address this crisis on Wednesday evening, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres having declared that “Lebanon is on the brink of the abyss”.
The war in Gaza “has gone on too long”
Nearly a year after the deadly attacks of October 7, Emmanuel Macron declared that the war that “Israel is waging in Gaza has lasted too long”, stressing that “the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian victims have no justification”.
“It is imperative that a new phase opens in Gaza, that the weapons fall silent, that humanitarian workers return, that civilian populations are finally protected,” he said, adding that France will participate “in any initiative that will save lives” and that will ensure the security of all.
Macron calls for limiting veto power in cases of “mass crimes”
Emmanuel Macron also called for “limiting” the right of veto in the Security Council in the event of a “mass crime”, as part of a reform to make the key organ of the United Nations more effective.
As more and more states are calling for the Council to be enlarged, a reform of its composition alone “would not be enough to restore its effectiveness and I therefore hope that this reform will also make it possible to change working methods, to limit the right of veto in the event of mass crime, and to concentrate on operational decisions required to maintain peace and international security”, declared the French head of state.