UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The latest on the high-level U.N. General Assembly meetings (all times local):
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11:30
El Salvador’s President Sanchez Ceren is telling the U.N. General Assembly that building walls is not the answer to the challenges of migration.
Ceren said Thursday that the only way to stop Central Americans from fleeing poverty and violence is through “efforts aimed at improving the conditions of the communities were migrants come from.”
“A wall is not the solution because it generates more hate,” he said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall along the southern U.S. border and make Mexico pay for it.
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11:15 a.m.
The Lithuanian president is urging the international community to make women a central part of its pursuit of global development goals.
Making gender equality the cornerstone of her address to the U.N. General Assembly, Dalia Grybauskaite said the world’s greatest challenges cannot be addressed without full participation of women, who are “often more impacted, but left behind and ignored.”
“Only if all members of the society – both women and men – are fully represented and engaged, can the world’s future be truly sustainable,” Grybauskaite said Thursday.
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11:00 a.m.
Iran’s president is blaming world powers for the spread of terrorism over the past 15 years, saying their “repression and military intervention” has led to a more insecure world.
Hassan Rohuani also accused regional rival Saudi Arabia of spreading “hate ideology” in the region in speech Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly that touched on familiar Iranian concerns. He also criticized a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing families of victims of bombing attacks linked to Iran to receive monetary damages from the country. At risk for Tehran is 1.75 billion in bonds, plus accumulating interest.
At the same time, he praised the nuclear deal reached with the United States and five other powers last year as a “win-win approach” for both sides.
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10:45 a.m.
Japanese officials say that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe requested that Iran cease military cooperation with North Korea.
Abe made the request at a Wednesday meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the conversation between the two leaders.
The appeal from Abe reflects a desire to cut sources of revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
The officials say Rouhani responded that development of weapons of mass destruction would not contribute to world stability and he supports denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, there’s no evidence that Iran and North Korea have engaged in nuclear cooperation but they have on missile technology.
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9:00 a.m.
India has branded Pakistan a “terrorist state” in a stinging response to Pakistan’s criticism of Indian suppression of protests in disputed Kashmir.
India exercised its right of reply in the U.N. General Assembly late Wednesday. It was responding to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who had demanded a U.N. probe into “brutalities” by Indian forces.
Indian diplomat Eenam Gambhir described that as a “hypocritical sermon.”
She blamed Pakistan for a rebel attack Sunday that killed 18 Indian soldiers in Kashmir, the deadliest attack on a military base there for years.
She said: “What we see in Pakistan is a terrorist state, which channelizes billions of dollars, much of it diverted from international aid, to training, financing and supporting terrorist groups as militant proxies against it neighbors.”