UNITED NATIONS (Islamweb & News Agencies) - A weeklong UN general assembly debate on the war on terror opened at the UN headquarters in New York Monday. The debate is the first global forum to focus on terrorism since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in an impassioned speech to the United Nations, said there was no room for ``neutrality'' in the global fight against terrorism and no need for more studies or vague directives.He said the world body should ostracize nations that support terrorism and isolate nations that remain neutral.
The Palestinian U.N. observer said the mayor's tough words might have drawn a negative reaction were he not speaking against the backdrop of the devastation in lower Manhattan.
``No state would hesitate in expressing a clear-cut position against international terrorism, and in favor of the fight. The sympathy was clear,'' said Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the world body against letting slip the unity forged among members after the attacks. (Read photo caption below)
``Terrorism will be defeated if the international community summons the will to unite in a broad coalition, or it will not be defeated at all,'' he warned.
Since 1963, the General Assembly has adopted a dozen legal instruments to fight terrorism. But only five have been ratified by more than 100 countries. The latest, approved in 1999, has not taken effect for lack of ratification.
Annan urged all nations to ratify the anti-terrorism conventions, and to agree on a new comprehensive convention on international terrorism. He also called for strengthening controls over more deadly nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that terrorists can use.
Normally slow to act, the General Assembly and the Security Council immediately condemned the attacks, and the council moved rapidly to adopt a U.S.-sponsored resolution on Friday which requires all 189 U.N.-member nations to deny money, support and sanctuary to terrorists.
Under the resolution, all countries must make the ``willful'' financing of terrorism a criminal offense, immediately freeze terrorist-related funds, deny terrorists ``safe haven,'' and speed the exchange of information, especially on terrorist acts and movements.
New U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, in his first U.N. speech, called for swift implementation of the resolution.
PHOTO CAPTION:
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan addresses the United Nations General Assembly, Monday Oct. 1, 2001. Monday was the start of a weeklong U.N. debate on international terrorism which will hear the views of more than 150 countries. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)
- Oct 01 1:29 PM ET