US President George W. Bush and other world leaders scrambled on Tuesday to contain the fallout from a financial crisis engulfing Wall Street and sending shock waves across the globe.
In his farewell speech to the UN, Bush offered assurances of his commitment to stabilizing world markets, which are overshadowing international concerns about tense standoffs with Russia, Iran and North Korea.
“I can assure you that my administration and our Congress are working together to quickly pass legislation approving this strategy, and I’m confident we will act in the urgent time frame required,” Bush said.
But he also faced criticism at the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders over the excesses of global capitalism that Washington has long pushed as the path to economic prosperity.
“Who is responsible for this disaster? May those who are responsible be punished and held accountable,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy called for a summit of world leaders in November to examine ways to overhaul what he said was a “crazy” financial setup at the root of the problem.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — whose country faced condemnation from Bush over its nuclear ambitions — joined the fray, saying in a newspaper interview the Wall Street crisis stemmed in part from US military interventions in places like Iraq.
“American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road, and its next rulers must limit their interference to their own borders,” Ahmadinejad said as he railed against Iran’s foes, the US and its ally Israel, in his UN address on Tuesday afternoon.
During Bush’s speech earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad seemed intent on showing uninterest. He waved to the people in the galleries along the side and flashed a broad smile. Turning to an aide as Bush spoke, Ahmadinejad made a fist and turned his thumb down.
In his speech, Sarkozy urged the creation of “a regulated capitalism in which whole swathes of financial activity are not left to the sole judgment of market operators.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said financial turmoil demands a new approach with less “uncritical faith in the ‘magic’ of markets.”
His words resonated with delegates of leftist governments that have long opposed the free market orthodoxy the Bush administration has advocated.
The main thrust of Bush’s eighth and final UN address was a call to redouble the fight against terrorism — a choice criticized by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former labor leader with close ties to Washington.
“He opted to talk again about terrorism,” Lula said. “I was expecting he was going to talk about the economic crisis because I think this is the most important thing at this moment.”
Meanwhile, the coalition of the willing that went to war in Iraq is becoming the coalition of the disappearing.
Bush and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani formally thanked the shrinking band of allies at a meeting on Tuesday night on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, a gathering that stood in stark contrast to the early days of his administration when the war was hotly debated at the global forum.
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