The first day of the 79th Session of the UNGA featured speeches by António Guterres (UN Secretary General), Mahmoud Bezerjian (President of Iran), Recep Tayyip Erdogan (President of Turkey), Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (President of Brazil) and Cyril Ramaphosa (President of South Africa). teleSUR
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00:00In his inaugural address, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to end wars
00:06and to comply with the UN Charter and resolutions.
00:09The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable.
00:19Today, a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to get out of jail free card.
00:30They can trample international law.
00:34They can violate the United Nations Charter.
00:38They can turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions
00:42or the decisions of international courts.
00:45It is time for a just peace, based on the UN Charter, on international law and on UN resolutions.
00:53Meanwhile, Gaza is a non-stop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.
01:01Look no further than Lebanon.
01:04We should all be alarmed by the escalation.
01:08Lebanon is at the brink.
01:11The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel and the people of the world
01:16cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.
01:19For his part, the President of Iran, Mahmoud Bezerjian, strongly condemned the Israeli genocide
01:25against Palestine and urged the international community to put a definitive end to Israeli siege.
01:32It is Israel that has assassinated our scientists, diplomats and even guests on our soil
01:39and supported, both covertly and overtly, terrorist groups like ISIS.
01:47Iran, in contrast, has supported popular liberation movements of people that have been victims
01:53of four generations of the crimes and colonialism of the Israeli regime.
01:58We have been siding with the people across the world who have flooded the streets in outrage
02:03against Israeli atrocities.
02:05We condemn Israeli crimes against humanity.
02:09It is imperative that the international community
02:11Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during his speech, referred to the challenges
02:16faced by the UN member states to bring justice to the Palestinian people.
02:21I would like to express here our pleasure to see the representative of our friend and brother
02:25Palestine in his rightful place among the member states as a result of long struggles.
02:32I hope that this historic step will be the last in the history of the United States.
02:38I hope that this historic step will be the final turning point on the road
02:45leading to Palestine's membership to the United Nations.
02:49International justice cannot be left in the will of five privileged member states
02:56of the Security Council.
02:57And the most dramatic example to that is the war, the massacre that has been going on in
03:03Gaza for the last 350 days.
03:06And since October 7, 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the continuous Israeli
03:12attacks.
03:17During his speech at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Brazilian
03:22President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned the humanitarian crisis currently taking place
03:28in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli regime.
03:31In Gaza and the West Bank, we are witnessing one of the greatest humanitarian crises in
03:36recent history, which is now spreading dangerously to Lebanon.
03:41What began as a terrorist action by fanatics against innocent Israeli civilians has become
03:48a collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people.
03:52They have been over 40,000 fatal victims, mostly women and children.
03:58The right to defense has become the right to vengeance, which prevents an agreement
04:03for the release of hostages and postpones the ceasefire.
04:09In addressing leaders of the UN General Assembly, the President of South Africa, Sir Ramaphosa,
04:15warned that what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza is apartheid, and called for respect
04:20for the principles of the UN Charter and for holding Israel accountable for its crimes
04:26in Palestine.
04:27We must end the suffering that Palestinians are being subjected to.
04:35We are called upon to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and to uphold consistently
04:45and in their entirety the fundamental tenets of international law.
04:52International law cannot be applied selectively.
04:57No one state is more equal than any other.
05:03During this first day, world leaders once again raised their voices to condemn the Israeli
05:09genocide perpetrated against Palestine, highlighting the responsibility of the United Nations as
05:15an international organization to achieve world peace.
05:18The 79th General Assembly of the United Nations will continue in session until September 30.