France has launched a threefold appeal at the United
Nations General Assembly for the swift implementation of last December’s Paris
accord on climate change, a major increase in aid for Africa, and an immediate
ceasefire in Syria and the provision of humanitarian aid.
President François Hollande of France made the appeal
while addressing the Seventy-first UN Assembly’s general debate on its opening
day, calling on all countries to speedily conclude all steps before the end of
the year.
On Africa, he proposed an “Agenda 2020” to give all
Africans access to electricity, and warned that there will be no development
there without security being guaranteed, noting France’s own intervention in
2013 that prevented terrorists from seizing control of Mali.
“Today the threat is posed mainly by Boko Haram in
Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” he said.
President Hollande reiterated France’s support for
countries of West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad region.
“Faced with this scourge the countries of West Africa,
the Sahel and the Lake Chad region know they can count on France. We are at
their sides, we are training them, we are supporting them in all fields,
including the crucial need for intelligence,” he added.
On Syria, Mr. Hollande said France would call on the UN
Security Council to meet and advance four demands: impose a ceasefire, demand
the immediate and unconditional provision of humanitarian aid to Aleppo and
other besieged cities, allow for the resumption of political negotiations, and
denounce and impose sanction on the regime’s recent use of chemical weapons.
Mr. Hollande said France also sought a meeting by the
end of the year where Israel and then Palestinians will have both the capacity
and responsibility to negotiate a solution to their conflict based on two
states living side by side in peace and security.
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