Jordan’s King Abdullah: UN faces ‘crisis that strikes at its very legitimacy’
The leader of Jordan – which borders the occupied West Bank and hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees – issued a stark warning about the “legitimacy” of the United Nations.
That comes as UN facilities and staff continue to be attacked in Gaza and rulings by the UN’s International Court of Justice are ignored.
“The UN is under attack, literally and figuratively,” King Abdullah II said. “The United Nations is facing a crisis that strikes at its very legitimacy and threatens a collapse of global trust and moral authority.
“The harsh reality that many see is that some nations are above international law, that global justice does bend to the will of powers, and human rights are a selective a privilege to be granted or denied at will. We cannot stand for that,” he added.
“It often feels that there was not a moment our world was not in turmoil, and yet I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this.”
World ‘will never accept’ forced displacement of Palestinians: Jordan’s king
King Abdullah decried the war in Gaza, the spike in fighting in the occupied West Bank, and the escalation in Lebanon. He warned that “impunity gathers force, and left unchecked, it gains momentum”.
“It is the moral duty of this international community to establish a protection mechanism for them across the occupied temple,” he said, adding “We will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.”
“For decades, Israel has projected itself as a thriving Western-style democracy in the Middle East, but the brutality of the war on Gaza has forced the world to look closer,” said King Abdullah. “Now many see Israel through the eyes of its victims, and the contradiction, the paradox is too jarring.
“I call on all countries to join Jordan in enforcing an international Gaza humanitarian gateway, a massive relief effort to deliver food, clean water, medicine and other vital supplies to those in desperate need.”
Jordan and Israel normalised ties in 1994, and the kingdom continues to manage the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
