President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters. AFP
Brazil, traditionally the first state to address the Assembly, set the tone for the week of debates with Lula’s fiery remarks. Without naming Washington directly, he condemned recent US airstrikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, dismissing the framing of those targeted as “narcoterrorists.”
“The comparison between crime and terrorism is worrying,” he said. “The most effective way to combat drug trafficking is to cooperate to suppress money laundering and limit arms trade. Using lethal force in situations that do not constitute armed conflict is tantamount to executing people without trial.”
He linked the strikes to the broader legacy of the “war on terror,” warning that “other parts of the planet have already witnessed interventions that cause greater damage than intended with serious humanitarian consequences.”
Turning to Gaza, Lula declared: “Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Under tonnes of rubble are buried tens of thousands of innocent women and children.” He accused Israel of weaponising hunger and carrying out forced displacement with impunity. “In Gaza, hunger is used as a weapon of war, and the forced displacement of the population goes on unpunished.”
According to Lula, the war has discredited the very foundations of international law. “This war revealed that international humanitarian law and the myth of ethical exceptionalism of the West are also being buried there.” He warned that Palestinians risk disappearing altogether, and that only an independent state integrated into the international community could ensure their survival.
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