European Union Calls for a Global Ceasefire. It is Time to Focus Together On The True Fight of Our Lives

• Emphasis mine:
• EU Debates | eudebates.tv
  The head of the UN just called for an immediate global ceasefire, and it’s gaining momentum! Let’s all join him to silence the guns amidst the COVID-19 crisis. Sign the urgent call using your email address: https://youtu.be/uqVyXoaup9M
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  “Our world faces a common enemy: COVID-19. The virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith. It attacks all, relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world. The most vulnerable — women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and the displaced — pay the highest price. They are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from COVID-19.
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  Let’s not forget that in war-ravaged countries, health systems have collapsed. Health professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.
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  That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.” US and Russia blocking UN plans for a global ceasefire amid crisis The Trump administration and Russia are blocking efforts to win binding UN security council backing for a global ceasefire to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 150,000 lives worldwide.
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  The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, called for an immediate end to fighting involving governments and armed groups in all conflict areas almost one month ago. “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” he said. Yet despite strong support for a universal truce from dozens of countries, including leading US allies such as Britain, France and Germany, as well as human rights groups, charities and the pope, the Trump administration is refusing to be bound by the measure.
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  In an attempt to break the impasse, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has proposed a draft security council resolution which attempts to overcome US and Russian objections by, in effect, making it impossible to enforce. The resolution, as drafted, is understood to welcome the UN secretary-general’s appeal and express support for his efforts. But it does not insist on a binding, universal ceasefire, allowing exceptions to be made at the discretion of individual member states.
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  The US objections arise from White House, Pentagon and State Department concerns that an all-encompassing measure could hinder their ability to prosecute military operations against terrorist groups, for example Isis in Iraq, and other targets that are deemed hostile to US interests. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is believed to have similar reservations regarding the impact on Russian military operations in Syria and on Moscow’s unacknowledged support for proxy groups and non-state militias in wartorn countries such as Libya.
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  According to a special report published by the US-based Foreign Policy website, “both governments fear that a universal ceasefire could potentially constrain their own efforts to mount what they consider legitimate counter-terrorism operations overseas. “The US is also concerned that a blanket ceasefire could inhibit Israel’s ability to engage in military operations throughout the Middle East,” the report’s author, Colum Lynch, said – a reference to Israeli airstrikes in recent months on targets in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. In addition, analysts say, president Donald Trump and his advisers want to retain the freedom to launch attacks on pro-Iranian militia in Iraq, as happened recently, or carry out opportunistic strikes against Iran’s military leaders, similar to the US drone strike in January that killed the Revolutionary Guards Corps general, Qassem Suleimani.
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  Speaking on 23 March, Guterres appealed to warring parties across the globe to end hostilities and join together to fight Covid-19 instead. “End the sickness of war and fight the disease that is ravaging our world. It starts by stopping the fighting everywhere. Now. That is what our human family needs, now more than ever,” he said. Guterres’s call was endorsed earlier this month by charities, religious organisations and human rights groups.
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  Pope Francis threw his weight behind it in an Easter Sunday address. On Friday, Henrietta Fore, head of the UN children’s fund, Unicef, warned that 250 million children living in the “waking nightmare” of conflict desperately needed warring parties to stop fighting as the pandemic spread. More than 50 governments have also backed Guterres’s initiative, including several Nato allies. In a joint letter, which the US and Russia declined to sign, they expressed concern that the UN security council had yet to take action.
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  “As the global Covid-19 pandemic spreads, we are concerned about the plight of women, children, and all civilians caught in armed conflicts … these populations are already impacted disproportionately by armed conflict.

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