Mohamed Morsi, addressing the United Nations as the first democratically chosen leader of Egypt, called the Syrian war "the tragedy of our age" for which the whole world was responsible – and accused the Assad regime of "killing its people night and day".
President Morsi called for the replacement of the regime with a democratic government representative of all the country's ethnic and religious groups, but said this should be done without outside military intervention. Instead, he pointed to a new diplomatic initiative begun by Egypt, Turkey and Iran, and called on other nations to join it.
Before discussing the Syrian conflict, Morsi said the UN should make a priority of addressing the plight of the Palestinian people, saying that it was "shameful" that successive UN resolutions on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories had not been enforced.
"The fruits of dignity and freedom must not remain far from the Palestinian people," he said.
In his maiden speech to the UN general assembly, Morsi said the people of the Middle East would no longer tolerate dictatorship, nor would they tolerate countries that did not sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), a clear reference to Israel, whose nuclear arsenal gives it a monopoly in the region. He voiced support to a UN-sponsored conference due by the end of the year to promote the Middle East as a region free of weapons of mass destruction. Israel has rejected such a call.
But Morsi also had an oblique rebuke for Iran, saying that all countries should also demonstrate the peaceful nature of their nuclear programmes to the satisfaction of their neighbours. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that Iran is not co-operating with its investigation into evidence of past experimentation with nuclear weapons technology.
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