US President George W. Bush announced new sanctions yesterday against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.
"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an address to the UN General Assembly.
Bush also urged other nations to support the struggle for democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.
"The people of Lebanon and Afghanistan and Iraq have asked for our help and every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand with them," Bush said.
"Every civilized nation also has a responsibility to stand up for the people suffering under dictatorship," the president said. "In Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration [of the UN]."
Bush also said he was willing to consider expanding the UN Security Council and pressed for Japan, a close US ally, to get a permanent seat on the panel.
"The United States is open to this prospect," Bush said. "We believe that Japan is well-qualified for permanent membership on the Security Council and that other nations should be considered as well."
The 15-member Security Council, the most powerful UN body which can make mandatory decisions on war and peace, has five veto-bearing permanent members named when the UN was created in 1945.
The permanent members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. Ten other countries rotate for two-year terms according to regions.
A majority of UN members believe the Security Council is unrepresentative and dominated by industrial nations.
Other issues likely to appear in the opening debates of the General Assembly include climate change -- the theme of this year's session.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said at the close of a one-day summit on climate change at the UN on Monday that there was "a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough on climate change" at key talks in Bali in December.
The Dec. 3 to Dec. 14 conference is tasked with setting down a roadmap for negotiations culminating in a new global deal for addressing global warming.
Also in the spotlight at the UN gathering are efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and civil strife in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where a UN-African Union force is due to deploy next year.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is hoping to convene international peace talks later this year to set out the contours of a Palestinian state.
The four sponsors of the stalled peace process -- the US, the EU, Russia and the UN -- have expressed support for the gathering.
Also yesterday, France chaired a Security Council summit on Africa expected to endorse sending EU and UN troops to Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians reeling from a spillover of the Darfur conflict.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy chaired the session, attended by representatives of all 15 council members, including Bush.
Participants in the debate are widely expected to overwhelmingly approve a French-drafted resolution to endorse the deployment of a joint UN-EU force to the two impoverished former French colonies.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to address the world body later in the day, and was expected to try to reassure the international community that it has nothing to fear from Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
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CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
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