OSMAN SALEH MOHAMMED, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Eritrea, recalled that maintenance of global peace was the main objective of the League of Nations following the First World War. Twenty-five years later, the United Nations was established for the same goal.  However, as the world was plunged into the era of the cold war, culminating in the collapse of the former Soviet bloc, a “precarious unipolar order” was born, which represented the revival of policies of colonialism, slavery and resource theft.  Such policies of “containment”, created by the unipolar order can be seen in Ukraine, he said, noting that they are also used against China for similar gains, while those that wield the strategy “portend to global peace”.

In his region, the same policies stifle the Palestinian cause and may trigger a wider regional war.  Other conflicts on the African continent under similar pretexts only serve to maintain colonial slavery.  Meanwhile, burgeoning protests movements are stifled in Europe and the United States and traditional coalitions fragment, revealing the dysfunctionality of the “new unipolar order”.  The maintenance of global peace through a just global order has not been achieved. The response must not be “despondency”, he said, rather a redoubling of efforts to obtain those cherished goals. Addressing the “predicament of the Eritrean people which epitomizes in all respects the typical ordeal of other peoples” he recalled that three generations were doomed to pay preciously mainly because the Dulles brothers found that Eritrea did not serve the United States’ strategic interest.  Even following their independence in 1991, nation-building was sabotaged by those same Powers by instigating border conflicts to destabilize his country.

The economic damage and loss incurred was enormous. Worse, in 2009, Eritrea was subjected to unjustified sanctions.  Unilateral measures and statecraft still plague the region, he added.  Eritrea’s situation “is only the tip of the iceberg” he said, noting that problems imposed upon other peoples in African countries, Latin America, Asia and Europe are also severe, he said, calling for the lifting of unilateral coercive measures on countries including Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.  The Charter of the United Nations must reckon with the actions of the hegemonic Powers imposing a “law of the jungle” on the world, preventing its people from thriving, through the installation of a new global order guaranteeing peace and stability. The current global situation shows that this cannot be left to chance, he urged, adding that “the forces of hegemony must also be made accountable for their crimes for the dispensation of justice”.