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CHICAGO/LONDON: The 79th session of the UN General Assembly, which ended this week, made clear the UN's inability to prevent escalating wars, particularly in the Middle East. However, progress has been made on other global issues such as climate change and poverty.

The United Nations was founded on October 24, 1945 after World War II to maintain international peace, prevent conflict and promote friendly relations between countries. But 79 years later, experts admit that the United Nations is still prevented from fulfilling its core mandate, particularly because of the disproportionate power wielded by the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom .

Brian Katulis, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Middle East Institute, highlighted this imbalance in an interview on “The Ray Hanania Radio Show,” pointing out that while the United Nations is often blamed for failing to end conflicts But major world powers have also failed to “stop the spiral of conflict and regional war” that is breaking out in the Middle East.

“It’s OK to point the finger at the UN, but the US hasn’t done that great of a job to prevent this,” Katulis said. “And I would also argue that many regional powers and also other global powers like Russia and China have not been so good, and that's for one reason: it's because the combatants in these Middle East conflicts see fit to actually use force, military force, power in this way, in some cases terrorism and terrorist attacks to advance their interests. And that is the unfortunate consequence of the era we are currently living in.”

Despite these challenges, the UN continues to make progress in other areas, Katulis said, emphasizing that the organization still plays a crucial role in addressing societal problems, particularly through its humanitarian work with refugees and its efforts in global health.

“If you ask the Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza and other places, they are doing a lot across the board,” said Katulis, who this week published his latest analysis, “Strategic Drift: An Assessment of The Biden Administration's Middle East Approach,” available from the Middle East Institute.

“Of course there have been legitimate criticisms about the quality of that education and what is being taught, but there are certain things that we just take for granted here in America because we have such a great system and economy.”

He argued that while the UN “provides many stopgap solutions, it also saves lives.”

Most recently, the United Nations launched a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio in Gaza after the enclave's first confirmed case in 25 years.

To achieve this, the World Health Organization, the UN agency founded in 1948 to promote global health and security, coordinated its efforts using local ceasefires between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.

Despite the United Nations' benevolent long-standing mission and membership of 193 states, the body's relationship with Israel has become increasingly strained. This tension reached its peak earlier this week when Israel declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata.

In recent years, experts have questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations, a body originally intended to reflect postwar power structures. These concerns have intensified amid increasing conflict in the Middle East and are reflected in a loss of confidence in the organization's ability to mediate effectively.

But despite rising tensions and an agenda dominated by wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, the UN General Assembly continued to advance its broader goals. The focus was on promoting reforms and advocating for greater equality between member states and the powerful Security Council.

“Although Gaza and the war in Sudan and the war in Ukraine once again dominated the 79th session of the General Assembly, there were still some positive headlines, the United Nations likes to say,” Ephrem Kossaify, UN correspondent for Arab News, told “The Ray Hanania Radio Show.”

Kossaify highlighted the adoption of key agreements at the meeting, including the Compact for the Future, which aims to revitalize the United Nations multilateral system. The General Assembly also adopted other important declarations, such as one on strengthening the role of youth in public decision-making and another on the global governance of artificial intelligence.

“A pact was also adopted, a political declaration on antimicrobial resistance, which, as Dr. Hanan Balkhy, a Saudi regional head of the WHO, told Arab News that the 'silent epidemic' is.” So if you want to see the glass half full, you can look at these agreements. Even though it took a very long time with intensive weeks and months of negotiations led by Germany and Namibia, the member states were finally able to come together to sign these three major declarations,” said Kossaify.

But for many, including former UN special envoy for Yemen and UN Under-Secretary-General Jamal Benomar, the statements are seen as “rehashed and recycled language from previously agreed UN documents”, full of “weak and ambitious language” that lacks concreteness and Feasibility steps are missing.

A major obstacle remains: the Security Council's veto power.

Kossaify highlighted the “paralysis” within the UN, pointing to the rift between the Security Council's all-powerful permanent members and the increasingly assertive General Assembly, which has increased its support for Palestine in the face of Israeli violence against civilians in Gaza. Despite increasing calls for a ceasefire, the United States – one of the five permanent members – has repeatedly vetoed such proposals.

“Of the 80 vetoes that the US has used over the past few decades, at least 40 have been used to prevent any action against Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories and any action on the ground,” Kossaify said, adding that last year alone five of these vetoes were lodged.

“As we have seen, the US has vetoed every ceasefire resolution. And even when the Security Council passed the three resolutions, one of which concerned humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, the US abstained from voting to pass them but undermined them even further by saying the Security Council resolutions were non-binding.”

Kossaify said that this had led to a “huge controversy” and that the Security Council was “supposed to have the force of international law behind it.”

“It is even permissible to use Chapter Seven to use force to implement its decision. But it is paralyzed because these five major powers have veto power. They can block any action that does not fit their geopolitical position.”

Kossaify highlighted his interview with Kuwait's UN ambassador, who said that “one or two countries can no longer be allowed to block the path to peace when the whole, when so many – the majority of member states want the path to peace.” .”

Kossaify stressed the unity of Arabs in calling for an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza and the expansion of the conflict, adding: “As far as Gaza is concerned, we see not only the humanitarian suffering that we are really experiencing and how it has weighed on the conscience of the people It is also the way in which Gaza has exposed the true weaknesses of the UN system with its Security Council, the dangers of keeping this veto power unchallenged, and the dysfunction that it essentially creates in this multilateral institution, the only one we have in the world.

“Despite all the challenges, disagreements and geopolitical divisions, the General Assembly was able to adopt the Compact for the Future, a declaration on the role of youth and a commitment to reform the Security Council, albeit only in words.”

Katulis and Kossaify made the comments during the taping of the “Ray Hanania Radio Show,” airing Thursday on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News.

The show will air live on WNZK AM 690 Radio in Michigan on Thursday at 5:00 pm EST and the following Monday at 5:00 pm. It is available as a podcast at ArabNews.com/rayradioshow or at Facebook.com/ArabNews.