UNGA 77: Biden's, Raisi's Speeches Show Fundamental Differences on World Architecture

As heads of state delivered speeches at the 77th UN General Assembly, what they had to say exposed growing fault lines between their take on reality, with the US sticking to its “rules-based” worldview and Iran’s leadership predicting the end of the “old world”.

US President Joe Biden began his UN General Assembly address at 11:08am on Wednesday, dedicating the first part of his speech to condemning Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.

Biden’s harsh rhetoric - slamming Moscow for “shamelessly violating the UN Charter” - was accompanied by loud drums outside the UN Headquarters as a group of pro-Ukraine protesters shouted “Glory to Ukraine” and waved anti-Russian banners.

Ukrainian activists, however, apparently finished their rally before Biden’s speech was over, having given way to followers of the Falun Gong religious movement criticizing China for banning them.

Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has in the past criticized Washington’s “rules-based order” as something which, in his opinion, is incompatible with the international law Russia respects, as such rules are often made and broken to suit the needs of those who invent them. But Biden chose to invoke these two terms in his UN speech:

“As we meet today, the UN Charter — the UN Charter’s very basis of a stable and just rule-based order is under attack by those who wish to tear it down or distort it for their own political advantage,” the US leader said.

Biden mentioned Ukraine’s sovereignty four times, stressing that Washington and its allies will continue to provide aid to Kiev. What he forgot to bring up though, is America’s own habit of violating international law - for example, in Ukraine, when the US helped to topple an elected President Yanukovich in 2014.

“[The US] invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, right after that, killed hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed those countries,” says Christopher C Black, an international criminal lawyer, while commenting on Biden’s remarks. “They've attacked Libya and destroyed that, murdered [Muammar] Gadhafi. They hang Saddam Hussein. They'd respect nobody's sovereignty. They kept referring to sovereignty, but they don't care about anybody's sovereignty.”

Nevertheless, some leaders who also spoke at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday believe that America’s dominance and Washington’s readiness to foist its own views on other nations will be over soon.

According to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the present world is one where capital dominates over morality and justice, but he predicted changes to the situation:

"The decline of this old order is inevitable. Our region, West Asia, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and proud Iran, is a great museum of the decline of this old order," Raisi said.

Raisi’s observations such as that one are unlikely to make it into the headlines of the US mainstream media, with news channels focusing mostly on Biden’s remarks – something which Christopher C Black also mentioned in his Sputnik interview, when he was asked whether Iranian or African leaders, who also took to the stage at the UN headquarters on Wednesday, will get as much airtime as the POTUS:

“No, the Iranians in particular will be totally ignored here,” Black said. “The only thing they mentioned today on CNN, I noticed, was Iran's statement that they want to get justice for the murder by the United States of General Soleimani in Iraq a couple of years ago. And that's a murder that Biden didn't apologize for.”

The 77th session of the UN General Assembly opened on 13 September, with the High-Level Debate having been going on since Tuesday. The delegates are focusing on international peace and security, promotion of human rights, disarmament, drug control and crime prevention.

The Russian delegation led by Moscow’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov arrived in New York on Tuesday. Lavrov has a number of talks scheduled on the sidelines of the main event. He’s also expected to deliver a speech and hold a news conference at the UN headquarters later in the week.