Joe Biden calls for diplomatic solution to Middle East conflict in final United Nations address
Joe Biden has called for an end to conflicts in the Middle East in his final address to world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
In his speech in New York, the US president said now was the time for Israel and Hamas to finalise the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
Mr Biden said the families of those taken hostage were “going through hell” and added: “Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell.”
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Speaking about Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon edging closer to an all-out war, Mr Biden said: “Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest.
“A diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security.”
Mr Biden also condemned Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and said progress towards peace in the Middle East would put the world in a stronger position to respond to “the ongoing threat posed by Iran”.
“Together we must deny oxygen to its terrorist proxies,” he said – referring to Iran-backed groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi militants in Yemen – “and ensure that Iran will never, ever obtain a nuclear weapon.”
He had a more hopeful outlook for the Middle East when he addressed the UN a year ago, when he spoke of a “sustainable, integrated Middle East” coming into view.
During his speech, Mr Biden also praised the support his Western allies have given to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.
“The good news is Putin’s war has failed in its core aim. He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free,” he said.
He called for world leaders to continue their support for Ukraine, adding: “We cannot grow weary. We cannot look away, and we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins with a just, durable peace.”
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Little sign of urgency from president on diplomatic intervention in Middle East
It was not the high note Joe Biden would have hoped for in his last speech at the UN.
With the world in crisis on so many fronts in the dying months of his presidency, there was little hope of that.
Mr Biden has built so much of his political career in foreign policy and yet his legacy overseas is now unravelling.
It was far from his finest speech. He went through the list of achievements and challenges. His words lacked conviction. His tone was flat.
Most of all the speech was overshadowed by the spiralling crisis in the Middle East. On that, the president seemed tin-eared.
He spoke of the ceasefire deal his diplomats have tried to forge over Gaza. It is for now dead in the water but not for Mr Biden. “Now is a time for the parties to finalise terms,” he said.
What the region needs now is urgent diplomatic intervention by the US and its allies here at the UN.
There was little sign of that urgency from the president in this speech. He seemed to be going through the motions in the twilight of his presidency.
‘Some things are more important than staying in power’
With four months left in office, the speech was one of Mr Biden’s last high-profile opportunities as president to put forward the case for American support for Ukraine, which could be placed in doubt if former president Donald Trump defeats vice president Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still trying to galvanise Mr Biden into loosening restrictions on the use of Western-supplied long-range missiles, so Ukrainian forces can use them to hit targets in Russia.
Mr Biden will hear from Mr Zelenskyy about a new Ukrainian peace plan when they meet in Washington this Thursday.
During the course of the war, Mr Biden has initially resisted Ukrainian requests for certain military assets, such as M1 Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets, before relenting and agreeing to their use.
Mr Biden concluded his final speech to the UN General Assembly as US president with a message to world leaders: “My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power. It’s your people.”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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