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WORLD leaders, including President Mugabe, are gathered in New York this week for the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and will be seized with a broad agenda to tackle multi-faceted challenges confronting the world. They face a tough task to resolve issues on peace and security in various continents and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. In Africa, the security situation in the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho after an attempted coup will come under the spotlight while the never-ending conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo will also be discussed.

Sadc is already seized with the Lesotho problem with its Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation scheduled to host a meeting of member states on the sidelines of the General Assembly to deliberate on the situation in Maseru and eastern DRC after their meeting with UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in New York on Monday.

On the Ebola outbreak, the UN on Monday dedicated $1 billion to fight the disease over the next six months and we feel this is commendable. Besides the above pressing matters, the biggest gathering of world leaders faces a stern test on how it deals with the increasing unilateralism being displayed by the United States and its allies in their foreign policies particularly their attitudes to the Ukrainian conflict and the Middle East situation.

The world woke up yesterday to reports of a sustained bombing campaign by the US presumably with Arab countries’ support in Syria where they are targeting militants from the Islamic State (IS). The US did not seek a UN resolution for the air campaign with its Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power saying they had the legal basis to launch air strikes on ISIS in Syria without a UN resolution which Russia was likely to veto.

“The Iraqis have appealed to the international community to come to their defence not only in Iraq, but also to go after safe havens in foreign countries. And what they mean by that of course is Syria,” Power told American television station ABC’s This Week programme.

“So they have made an appeal to the international community for collective defence. And we think we have a legal basis we need.” However, Russia has cautioned against violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by the US as it pursues IS militants. Speaking in a phone call with his US counterpart, John Kerry on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed “the importance of coordinated action… by the international community aimed at countering the threat” coming from the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). He warned against “double standards” and “distortion of facts” during the battle against the terrorist group, which has declared a caliphate in the occupied territories of Syria and Iraq.
Lavrov underlined “the necessity for strict adherence to the UN Charter and international law as well as unconditional respect for Syrian sovereignty during the implementation of plans by the US-led coalition, which includes the use of force. Russia’s concern stems from its dealings with the US in the Ukrainian conflict.

The US and its Western allies have imposed a range of sanctions, without approval from the UN — targeting Russia’s energy, banking and defence sectors — sending the official currency — the ruble — crashing to record lows.

Speaking in Zimbabwe when he officiated at the commissioning of a $3 billion platinum mine in Darwendale, Lavrov said: “There is no coming back to a unipolar world, to a bi-polar world. The future of the world would only be multiple, otherwise the whole system would not be sustainable.”

We agree with him. The UN must deal decisively with the US and its allies as they have become a law unto themselves and are doing as they please on the international stage. The UN must ensure that all member states adhere to its charter and respect international law.

The growing unilateralism of the US is undermining UN systems and rendering its oversight role over world affairs impotent. It’s time the UN showed its teeth and brought to book powerful countries that ride roughshod over smaller weaker nations.

It needs to condemn the actions of the US which is literally showing it the middle finger by embarking on military adventures and imposing illegal sanctions on other nations willy-nilly without seeking its approval.