UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The President Joe Biden said in his final speech at the United Nations General Assembly On Tuesday, the United States must not withdraw from the world as Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon draw closer total war and bloody Israel Operation against Hamas In Gaza, we are approaching the one-year mark.
Biden used his speech to discuss the need to end the conflict in the Middle East and the 17-month-old civil war in Sudan and to underscore the support the United States and its Western allies have given kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022He also raised concerns about artificial intelligence and its potential for use for repressive purposes.
His appearance before the international body offered Biden one of his last high-profile opportunities as president to make the case for continued strong support for Ukraine, which could be in doubt if the former president Donald Trump beats the vice president Kamala Harris In November, Biden insisted that despite global conflicts, he remained optimistic about the future.
“I have witnessed a remarkable historical journey,” Biden said. “I know many people look at the world today and see hardship and react with despair, but I do not.”
“We are stronger than we think” when the world acts together, he added.
Biden came to power promising to rejuvenate American relationships around the world and extract the United States from “eternal wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have focused American foreign policy over the past twenty years.
“I was determined to end it, and I did,” Biden said of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “a tough decision but a good one.” He acknowledged that it was “accompanied by tragedy” with the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and hundreds of Afghans in a suicide bombing during the chaotic pullout.
But his foreign policy legacy may well be shaped by his administration’s response to two of the biggest conflicts in Europe and the Middle East since World War II.
“There will always be forces that divide our countries,” Biden said, rejecting “the desire to withdraw from the world and go it alone.” “Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces that unite us are stronger than those that divide us,” he added.
The Pentagon announced Monday that it would send a small number of additional US troops In the Middle East, reinforcements have been sent to bolster the approximately 40,000 troops already deployed in the region. Meanwhile, the White House insists that Israel and Hezbollah still have time to reverse course and de-escalate the situation.
“A full-scale war is in no one’s interest,” Biden said, and despite the escalation of violence, a diplomatic solution is the only path to peace.
A year ago, Biden took an optimistic view of the Middle East when he addressed the United Nations. In that speech, he spoke of the prospect of a “sustainable and integrated Middle East.”
At the time, economic relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors were improving with the implementation of the agreement. Abraham Accords that Israel signed with Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration.
Biden’s team helped resolve a long-standing maritime dispute between Israel and Lebanon which had slowed gas exploration in the region. Normalization of Israeli-Saudi relations The talks were progressing, a A game-changing alignment for the region if an agreement could be reached.
“I suffer from an oxymoron: Irish optimism,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they met on the sidelines of last year’s U.N. meeting. He added: “If you and I, 10 years ago, had talked about normalization with Saudi Arabia … I think we would have looked at each other as if to say, ‘Who drank what?’”
Eighteen days later, Biden’s Middle East hopes collapsed. Hamas militants stormed Israel, killing 1,200 people, taking about 250 hostage and sparking a bloody war that left more than 1,000 dead. 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza and has dragged the region into a complex downward spiral.
Today, the conflict threatens to escalate into a multi-front war and leave a lasting scar on Biden’s presidential legacy.
Israel and Hezbollah Strikes exchanged again on Tuesday The death toll from the massive Israeli bombing has risen to nearly 560, with thousands fleeing southern Lebanon. It is the deadliest bombing since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel has urged residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate homes and other buildings where it believes Hezbollah has stored weapons, saying the army would carry out “large-scale strikes” against the militant group.
Hezbollah meanwhile launched dozens of rockets, missiles and drones toward northern Israel in retaliation for last week’s strikes that killed more than 100 people. a high ranking commander Dozens of fighters were also killed last week and hundreds more wounded after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants were blown up, a sophisticated attack that was widely believed to have been carried out by Israel.
Israeli leaders launched their counterattacks at a time of growing impatience with Iran-backed Hezbollah’s continued missile and drone strikes across the Israeli-Lebanese border after Hamas sparked the war with its brazen Oct. 7 attack.
Biden reiterated his call for the parties to agree to a ceasefire and a deal to release the hostages, saying it was time to “end this war” – even as hopes for such a deal fade as the conflict drags on.
In his speech, Biden called for continued Western support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Biden helped galvanize an international coalition to support Ukraine by providing it with weapons and economic aid in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
“We cannot get tired,” Biden said. “We cannot look away.”
Biden has managed to retain American support in the face of growing skepticism among some Republican lawmakers – and Trump – about the cost of the conflict.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pressuring Biden to ease restrictions on the use of Western-supplied long-range missiles so Ukrainian forces can strike deeper into Russia.
So far, Zelensky has not convinced the Pentagon or the White House to ease those restrictions. The Defense Department has stressed that Ukraine could already strike Moscow with Ukrainian-made drones, and there is hesitation about the strategic implications of a U.S.-made missile hitting the Russian capital.
Putin warned that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its NATO allies if they allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons.
Biden and Harris are scheduled to meet separately with Zelensky on Thursday in Washington. Ukrainian officials have also tried to arrange a meeting between Zelensky and Trump this week, though a Trump campaign official said that was not going to happen.
The president also sounded the alarm about the rapid advances in artificial intelligence, including disinformation, respect for human life and potential exploitation by totalitarian powers. He told world leaders: “There is perhaps no greater test of our leadership than how we manage AI.”
“We must ensure that the tremendous capabilities of AI are used to uplift and empower ordinary citizens, not to give dictators even more powerful shackles on the human spirit,” he added.
He later held a bilateral meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and joined other world leaders at an event highlighting their partnership to combat the production and distribution of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which cause tens of thousands of deaths in the United States alone each year.
Biden struck a melancholy tone in his remarks, peppering his speech with references to his first appearance in the General Assembly more than 50 years ago and quoting Irish poetry.
Biden cast his decision to step down as a teachable moment as he addressed a gathering that includes a significant portion of totalitarian, undemocratic leaders.
“Some things are more important than staying in power,” Biden said. “It’s your fellow citizens who matter most. Always remember that we are here to serve the people. Not the other way around.”
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Miller reported from Washington. AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
