Terrorists using social media against Muslims, migrants: Obama

Says Israel must recognise it cannotpermanently occupy Palestinian land

UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Obama Tuesday said terrorists were using the social media against the Muslims and immigrants to achieve their own ends.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, he said the US will continue to support those nations that transition to democracy, with greater trade and investment so that freedom is followed by opportunity. 

“We will pursue a deeper engagement with governments, but also with the civil society, students and entrepreneurs, political parties and the press.  We have banned those who abuse human rights from traveling to our country. And we’ve sanctioned those who trample on human rights abroad. And we will always serve as a voice for those who've been silenced,” he said. 

This was his final speech before the international governing body.  As he is about to complete his second term in the office, the president spoke about some of his administration's biggest foreign policy initiatives, including the importance of the Paris climate accord, nuclear deal with Iran and fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

He also talked about the ongoing, multisided war in Syria. The reference of tense ties between Pakistan and India were conspicuously missing while atrocities in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) could not become discussion in Obama’s address. 

His speech comes day after a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia collapsed, in part because of distrust sowed by an accidental strike by a US-led coalition aircraft that killed Syrian soldiers over the weekend.

And on Monday, an aid convoy in Syria was attacked from the air.  Despite the ongoing violence, Obama defended elements of his administration's approach to the war in Syria, echoing points made by the United States' ambassador to the UN. 

He defended his overall approach to foreign policy, which has been characterized by high regard for diplomacy.  “As we end the war in Iraq, the United States and our coalition partners have begun a transition in Afghanistan. Between now and 2014, an increasingly capable Afghan government and security forces will step forward to take responsibility for the future of their country. 

As they do, we are drawing down our own forces, while building an enduring partnership with the Afghan people,” he said. So let there be no doubt: The tide of war is receding. When I took office, roughly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, that number will be cut in half, and it will continue to decline. 

This is critical for the sovereignty of Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s also critical to the strength of the United States as we build our nation at home.  To lift the specter of mass destruction, we must come together to pursue peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. 

Over the last two years, we've begun to walk down that path. Since our Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, nearly 50 nations have taken steps to secure nuclear materials from terrorists and smugglers. 

Next March, a summit in Seoul will advance our efforts to lock down all of them. The New START Treaty between the United States and Russia will cut our deployed arsenals to the lowest level in half a century, and our nations are pursuing talks on how to achieve even deeper reductions, he added. 

America will continue to work for a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons and the production of fissile material needed to make them.  “And so we have begun to move in the right direction. And the United States is committed to meeting our obligations. But even as we meet our obligations, we’ve strengthened the treaties and institutions that help stop the spread of these weapons. And to do so, we must continue to hold accountable those nations that flout them,” Obama said. 

Taking on Iran yet another time he maintained that the Iranian government cannot demonstrate that its program is peaceful. It has not met its obligations and it rejects offers that would provide it with peaceful nuclear power. 

North Korea has yet to take concrete steps towards abandoning its weapons and continues belligerent action against the South.  There's a future of greater opportunity for the people of these nations if their governments meet their international obligations. But if they continue down a path that is outside international law, they must be met with greater pressure and isolation. That is what our commitment to peace and security demands. 

As he closes, the president quotes Martin Luther King Jr., saying he believes that people around the world should strive to be "co-workers with God," in the pursuit of peace and prosperity.

"I see that spirit in our young people around the world," he says. The next generation is "more educated and more tolerant and more inclusive and more diverse than our generation. They are more empathetic and compassionate toward their fellow human beings."

The president said that he thinks the UN should reflect the "irreducible truth" that doing what is "best for all people" is also the best way to ensure a better future for the people of any one country.

President Obama said the nuclear agreement with Iran is part of a larger fight to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and that nuclear tests by North Korea are worrisome. "Sometimes I am criticized at home for my belief in international norms," he says, explaining that his belief in diplomacy is not always popular.

However, Obama defended his record of foreign policy over his two terms as president.  "I believe we have been a force for good," he says of the United States. "We must reject any forms of fundamentalism or racism," President Obama said, as he turns to the importance of embracing tolerance.  

He warns against leaders who seek legitimacy "not because of policies or programs, but by resorting to demonizing other religious sects," referencing the Middle East specifically. "If our religion leads us to persecute those of another faith," he says, or to jail gay people or undercut the rights of women and girls, then we lose our power as an international community.

The president also called on the world leaders to implement the Paris climate agreement, saying a focus on combating climate change is "not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do," and that if climate change continues unabated, it will, among things, fuel "conflicts born of despair."

Obama then referred to the fight against ISIS, calling the group a "mindless medieval menace." "There is a military component" to fighting the group, he says, but "in a place like Syria, there is no ultimate military victory to be won," and diplomacy is a key tool for peace.

President Obama turned to his broad beliefs on governance. He said liberal democracy is worth fighting for despite the fact that "building accountable institutions is hard work." 

Top-down leadership and governance by strongmen, he says, will ultimately lead to instability and war. "Because of our ideals, ordinary people were able to organize and march and protest," he says of the United States. Freedom "turned our diversity into strength.

"I do not think this story is unique to America," Obama said. "The countries that have succeeded are the ones in which people feel they have a stake," he says, going on to reference the uprising in Ukraine as evidence for the power of citizen engagement.

"The cure for what ails our democracies is greater engagement, not less," he says. He also argues that trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership are important tools for lifting people out of poverty, but that rich countries must do more to help the poor around the world.

He said that in order to move forward, "we do have to acknowledge that the existing path to global integration requires a course-correction."  Free markets and global trade have created gaps between rich and poor. "Too often those trumpeting globalization have ignored inequality," he said.

However, he also warned against those governments that would deny globalization or try to isolate themselves, calling it "self-defeating." "Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself," he said. 

As he began, President Obama said the world is both more prosperous and less violent than it was at the end of the Cold War, and yet it is more uncertain and filled with strife.  "We must go forward and not backward," he said. "Those who deny others dignity are subject to public reproach."

Reuters adds: He said both sides would benefit if  recognised it cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land and if Palestinians rejected incitement and recognised Israel´s legitimacy.

Obama’s efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement have failed over the nearly eight years he has been in the White House, with the latest push by US Secretary of State John Kerry collapsing in 2014.

"Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognise the legitimacy of Israel (and if) Israel recognises that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land," Obama said.

Addressing at the General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations for the last time as president, Obama also said Russia was trying to recover "lost glory" through force. 

He warned Russia that if it "continues to interfere in the affairs of its neighbours, it may be popular at home, it may fuel nationalist fervour for a time, but over time it is also going to diminish its stature and make its borders less secure."

Speaking about the South China Sea, Obama said: "A peaceful resolution of disputes offered by law will mean far greater stability than militarisation of a few rocks and reefs. 

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which ships carrying about $5 trillion in trade pass every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, which is also believed to be rich in energy resources and fish stocks.