MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula warns UN ain't what it used to be

“Why doesn't the UN create a State of Palestine like it did Israel?” Lula wondered

Speaking at the Brazil-France Business Forum in Paris, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva insisted Friday that the United Nations (UN) amounted to very little presently, unlike in its heyday. “We don't have global governance today,” Lula argued. The UN “represents almost anything,” he added. “The UN created the State of Israel in 1947; why doesn't it create the State of Palestine now? Because it doesn't have the strength.”

“No UN decision is complied with, and the five countries that are permanent members of the Security Council don't obey the UN either,” the Workers' Party (PT) leader also pointed out. Hence, the world is “orphaned”, with no one to reprimand those who break agreements. ”Let's not let (US President Donald) Trump be that governance. It has to be a collective, it can't have a veto,” the South American ruler further noted.

Lula accused countries of failing to comply with agreements from the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP), which represents a “historic liability.” In Lula's view, “they have to pay for this dispute, otherwise it won't solve the problem. You've already taken advantage of the planet, you've already created the welfare state, and we, who haven't created anything, won't be able to?” he went on.

The UN's weakness “leaves [Russian President Vladimir] Putin waging war with Ukraine” and an ongoing conflict in Gaza, Lula explained. “The United States invades Iraq without deciding [it] with the UN. France and England go into Libya without going through the UN,” he also highlighted.