The UN was created to make peace, not war

BarcelonaThe United Nations was created by the San Francisco Charter in 1945 with the goal that the international community would have a forum to discuss global security issues without having to resort to armed conflict. The idea was not to repeat the mistakes of the interwar League of Nations and to have a truly representative body where all countries, however small, could have a voice and a vote to preserve the most precious good, peace. Surely, the creation of the Security Council with five permanent members, and therefore with veto power, already perverted the initial objective and has turned the UN into an inoperative entity, but what had never been seen before is the spectacle offered on Tuesday by Donald Trump threatening Iran with annihilation from the speakers' rostrum. This Wednesday, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, appeared to show defiance and warn that "they have tested the strength and firmness of Iran, and they have learned that they cannot make Iran surrender".

Trump, therefore, has brought his conflict with the ayatollahs' regime to the UN headquarters to the astonishment of the other attendees and perhaps without realizing that, after seven months, his threats sound emptier than ever and are more a sign of impotence than strength. The paradox is that the United Nations has many reasons to isolate the Tehran regime, one of the most bloodthirsty in the world, but the military operation by Israel and the United States has turned the entire Middle East upside down and has caused an energy crisis that is affecting the economy of the entire planet.

And so, instead of discussing sanctions against Iran, what we have on the table is the blockade of a crucial maritime route for oil trade, such as the Strait of Hormuz, and the real danger that the conflict will end up spreading even further due to the entry into play of Iran's allies such as the Houthis. But none of this can be discussed because Trump deeply despises the UN and acts without consulting anyone. In reality, all the steps he has taken since returning to the White House have been aimed at destroying all multilateral institutions and the network of alliances that the United States has been building throughout its 250 years of existence. In fact, the very term "United Nations" was coined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to refer to the allies during the Second World War.

The result of Trump's international policy is that his speeches have less and less impact because they are very lacking in credibility. How many times has he threatened to "annihilate" Iran or Persian civilization? The American president considers that he does not need allies, but vassals, and only respects those leaders who hold absolute power, such as Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin. But the lesson of what is happening in Iran is exactly the opposite: without allies or complicity beyond Israel, what was supposed to be a military walk in the park has become a nightmare.