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President Obama’s call for action

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The World’s Alex Gallafent reports on President Obama’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly this morning.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman.  This is The World.  President Obama was at the United Nations today.  He delivered his first speech as president to the UN General Assembly.  Mr. Obama issued a call for international action on some of the bigger challenges facing the globe.  Here’s more from The World’s Alex Gallafent.

ALEX GALLAFENT: President Obama’s maiden speech to the UN touched on a familiar theme.  The US, said the president, is reengaging with the international community.  We’ve heard that before in Mister Obama’s speeches, including the ones he delivered in Egypt and Turkey a few months back.  This time, though, the president added an explicit caveat:  the rest of the world must do its part too.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone.

GALLAFENT:

President Obama laid out those problems in terms of four “pillars.”  Four issues of fundamental, global importance.  Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament; the promotion of peace and security; the preservation of the planet; and the development of a global economy offering opportunity for all. On some issues, the president struck similar notes to his predecessor, George Bush.  Not least in calling for a 2-state solution in the Middle East.  But, coming off the back of yesterday’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas, he didn’t mince his words.

OBAMA: All of us, not just the Israelis and the Palestinians but all of us, must decide whether we are serious about peace, or whether we will only lend it lip-service.  To break the old patterns, to break the cycle of insecurity and despair, all of us must say publicly what we would acknowledge in private.  The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians.

[APPLAUSE]

GALLAFENT:

Mister Obama’s audience at the General Assembly today included Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  But the US president didn’t mention Iran’s disputed election — although at least one part of his speech focused on US support for the principles of democracy.

OBAMA: There are certain truths that are self evident.  And the United States of America will never waiver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.

GALLAFENT: President Obama also seemed to acknowledge what it means to speak early at an event such as this.  He sought to preempt the kind of speeches that U-N delegates hear all too often.

OBAMA: It is easy to walk up to this podium and point fingers, and stoke divisions.

GALLAFENT: The man who followed President Obama to the podium was Libya’s Muamar Qaddafi.  And he certainly did a lot of rhetorical finger-pointing — particularly at the United Nations itself.  At one point he threw the UN charter over his shoulder. In his 40 years of power, Qaddafi had never before addressed the general assembly.  He had a lot to say, speaking for well over an hour — so long that the official UN translators switched shifts mid-speech.  Although he didn’t praise the United States, he did offer unlikely support for America’s new president:

MUAMAR QADDAFI – VIA TRANSLATOR]: We, as a matter of fact…we Africans are happy, proud, that one son of Africans governs the United States of America.  This is an historic event.  Obama is a glimpse in the dark for the next eight years.

GALLAFENT: Much of Muamar Qaddafi’s speech was spent looking back to the way the UN was founded, and even to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy.  In contrast, President Obama looked ahead. But as he said today, quote:  “Speeches alone will not solve our problems — it will take persistent action.”  Today was a reminder that the United Nations is a great forum for talking.  As always though, its ability to produce action is less clear.

For The World, I’m Alex Gallafent.

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