United Nations, October 1 (PL) With speeches from Cuba, Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador and Venezuela, for Latin America, the UN General Assembly”s annual debate is expected to complete today.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez will be the first of the representatives from that region to speak the UN highest body.
The minister will reiterate his country’s complaint against the U.S. -imposed blockade for 50 years.
That siege has been condemned for 20th consecutive years by the General Assembly, a body that will approve in November another resolution entitled “The Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
In 2011, that document was adopted by 186 votes for, with only two against: the United States and Israel.
Cuba denounced 10 days ago that the U.S. blockade has caused economic damage valued at 1.066 trillion USD until December 2011, considering the depreciation of the dollar against gold in the international market.
Rodriguez met here on Saturday, September 29, with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who explained the consequences of the intensification of that siege during the last years, especially in the financial sector.
This year, the condemnation of the blockade against Cuba has been part of the speeches by heads of State and Government, foreign ministers, and senior officials from more than thirty countries.
Today’s agenda also include those from Barbados, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Dominica, from the Caribbean area.
Canada, Armenia, Oman, India, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Togo, Angola, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, Belarus, Botswana, the Holy See, Vietnam, Palau, Democratic Korea, Denmark and Portugal will do it from other regions.
The list of speakers also includes the delegation from Syria, scene of a conflict that has been present in almost all speeches at the General Assembly’s plenary session.
Amid the ongoing debate on the crisis, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Walid al-Moallem has held a series of contacts at the UN headquarters in New York.
The official met here with UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who reiterated some allegations against attacks by armed terrorist groups to public and private properties in Syria.
He also criticized some sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe because of the basic problems of the Syrian people, and demanded its lifting, according to reports.
Al-Moallem also met with the new UN and Arab League special envoy for Syria, Algerian Lakhdar Brahimi, and expressed him support from the Syrian government to his constructive efforts.
At the same time, he stated that the success of the mission depends on the cessation of support, funding, and arming terrorist groups, as a way to begin a dialogue the government accepts and the opposition rejects.
Moreover, the Syrian minister held talks with Togo’s Foreign Minister Ohin Elliot, whose country was until yesterday the president of the Security Council, and with the diplomatic heads of Russia, Iran, and other State members of the world organization.