The two presidents pointedly alluded to each other – over Ukraine,Syria and more – but neither was in the general assembly chamber to hear the other speakThe UN general assembly is nothing whether it is not theatre – the annual opportunity of the leaders of 160 nations to hold their moment on the world’s stage, literally. Every three years, and like clockwork,one of them decides to throw convention to the winds and hold the diplomatic equivalent of a hissy fit.
Who can forget Hugo Chávez, the late president of Venezuela, and alluding to George Bush as the “devil” in 2006; or the then leader of Libya Muammar Gaddafi tearing up the UN constitution in 2009; or Binyamin Netanyahu,the Israeli prime minister, with his 2012 cartoon drawing of a nuclear bomb? The three-year cycle has advance round again, or so it was on Monday that the eyes of the world fell on those two great sparring partners,presidents Obama and Putin, in expectation that they would fulfil the role.
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Source: theguardian.com