Nations engaged in ‘proxy wars’ must end them, says Obama

From Yoshita Singh United Nations, Sep 20 (PTI) US President Barack Obamatoday asked nations engaged in "proxy wars" to end them,warning that if communities are not allowed to co-exist, the"embers of extremism will continue to burn" causing sufferingsto countless human beings and export of extremism overseas. In his eighth and final address to the UN GeneralAssembly as the US President, Obama admitted that theextremist and sectarian violence destabilising the Middle Eastand spreading elsewhere "will not be quickly reversed." "No external power is going to be able to force differentreligious communities or ethnic communities to co-exist forlong," Obama told the world leaders gathered here for the 71stUN General Assembly session. "Until basic questions are answered about how communitiesco-exist, the embers of extremism will continue to burn.Countless human beings will suffer and extremism will continueto be exported overseas," he warned. "Across-the-regions conflicts, we have to insist that allparties recognise a common humanity and the nations end proxywars that fuel disorders," he said. India accuses Pakistan of waging a proxy war bysupporting, arming and training militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba who launch cross border attacks. In one of the deadliest attacks on the Indian Army inrecent years, 18 soldiers were killed by heavily armedPakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militants who stormed abattalion headquarters of the force in Kashmir’s Uri townearly Sunday. Obama’s remarks a day after his Secretary of State JohnKerry asked Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to preventterrorists from using his country’s territory as safe havens. In his speech, Obama recounted the progress made in thelast eight years of his presidency and said "from the depthsof the greatest financial crisis of our times we coordinated aresponse to avoid further catastrophe and return the globaleconomy to growth." "We have taken away terrorist safe havens, strengthenedthe non-proliferation regime, resolved the Iranian nuclearissue through diplomacy. We opened relations with Cuba…andwe welcome a democratically elected leader of Myanmar to thisAssembly," he said. MORE PTI YAS ZH AKJZH