Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla said the Israeli army has “slaughtered” more than 40,000 civilians in Gaza over the past 11 months. He also paid tribute to the more than 220 UN staff who died during the conflict.
“The genocide against the Palestinian people must end unconditionally and without further delay,” he said.
To address 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 global conflict,” adding that “the irresponsible aggression against Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the population of the Middle East will have consequences that are difficult to predict.”
Mr Rodríguez Parrilla stated that almost 80 years after the founding of the UN, “the continued violations of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, aggression, interference in the internal affairs of States and the imposition of unilateral coercive measures for political purposes facts of life.”
Global peace and security are being undermined by “aggressive expansionist and supremacist military doctrines of domination.”
He said world military spending has continued to rise for the ninth year in a row, reaching $2.44 trillion in 2023 – a figure that also includes the development of new nuclear weapons.
He warned that there will be no peace without development, but “developed countries, inhabiting the same planet, blindly refuse to invest even minimally in its prosperity and security.”
Moreover, “the aim is to… Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has disappeared,” he continued, noting that the collective wealth of the five richest people in the world has increased, while five billion people worldwide still live in poverty.
“A tax on the wealth of billionaires could lift two billion people out of poverty,” said Mr Rodríguez Parrilla.
On the climate crisis, he recalled that scientists reported in July that the planet had experienced thirteen consecutive months of record high temperatures.
“If capitalism’s irrational and unsustainable production and consumption patterns are not changed in an urgent and significant way, it will be impossible to limit the global average temperature increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, ” he said.
He expressed hope that governments meeting at the UN COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan in November will adopt a new climate finance target.
Richer countries “will have a new opportunity to close the climate finance gap and pay off their financing debts,” while developing countries “will have to design a sufficient target that meets our own needs, with guarantees for development and social justice. ”
He said the solution will inevitably have to include writing off foreign debts, “which have already been paid several times.”
Mr. Rodríguez Parrilla called for a “fair, democratic international order” that guarantees, among other things, “the general well-being and prosperity of all peoples in harmony with nature, and the sustainable management of natural resources to ensure the enjoyment of all human rights to guarantee. for all people”.
The Secretary of State also spoke about the United States’ nearly 65-year trade and economic embargo on Cuba, which has caused “visible and undeniable” damage and affected the daily lives of the population.
Meanwhile, the Caribbean island’s inclusion on the US State Department’s list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism is “a fraudulent designation, without any international authority or mandate.”