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Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Addresses U.N. General Assembly

CUBA, September 27th, 2010.- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla made a speech during the general debate of the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

He spoke of the risks facing humanity, such as climate change and the possibility of nuclear war.

He said, ¨While we deliberate here, as comrade Fidel has pointed out, powerful and influential forces in the United States and Israel are paving the way to launch a military attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Security Council, on its part, possibly under the illusion of preventing it, moves on to adopt sanctions against that country which, together with the unilateral sanctions illegally imposed by a group of States, are seeking to suffocate the Iranian economy.¨

Rodriguez also spoke about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he said show that neither one nor a few governments can be entrusted with the faculty of deciding when all diplomatic steps to prevent a war have been exhausted, when the use of weapons will become unavoidable, when the death of hundreds of thousands or millions of people and the destabilization of a big region in the planet will be inevitable.

Rodriguez continued by saying, ¨Sanctions, sieges and confrontation are not the way to preserve international peace and security.

Quite on the contrary, dialogue, negotiations and adherence to the principle of sovereign equality of States are the only way to prevent a war.¨

He said that Cuba commends and encourages the efforts carried out by countries like China, Russia, Brazil and Turkey, which are trying to find a peaceful solution, and calls on the international community to support those initiatives.

It is the duty of the General Assembly to officially support those efforts.

Rodriguez called for the United Nations to be radically reformed and the faculties of the General Assembly to be reinstated, saying that it is necessary to reiterate that the United Nations Secretary-General and all other international agencies high officials, including the IAEA, have a duty with all member States, expressed in clear mandates and adopted in conformity with the UN Charter and the rules of procedure.

Rodriguez called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, and urged the United States, the main nuclear power, to stop opposing the negotiation of legally binding agreements that could get rid of such threat, once and for all, within a predetermined period of time.

Rodriguez also spoke of climate change and mentioned the floods that have affected Pakistan, Central America and many other countries in different latitudes and the droughts and extreme temperatures that have lashed Russia, as tragic reminders of the risks of climate imbalances.

The Minister said, ¨Developed countries, which bear the highest responsibility for global warming, should accept more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and desist from their efforts to destroy the framework established by the Kyoto Convention and Protocol.¨

Rodriguez called on world leaders to respect Venezuela in its Bolivarian Revolution, send humanitarian aide to Haiti, and to support the normalized relations between Cuba and the United States.

He called for the end of the blockade, the travel ban, and for the freedom of the Cuban Five.

Rodriguez concluded his speech by saying, ¨ The US President still has the opportunity to make a historical rectification of a genocidal policy, which is a remainder of the failed Cold War that has lasted for fifty years.

It would be an act of determination that could only arouse the support of those who elected him for a change and of the community of nations that votes every year for that.

Whatever the circumstances, the Cuban Revolution will unyieldingly and tenaciously continue down the path that has been sovereignly chosen by our people, and shall not cease in its endeavors, befitting the ideas of Marti and Fidel, of “conquering all the justice.”
(Cubaminrex - RHC)

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