Melania Trump just did something no first lady has ever done

United Nations: US first lady Melania Trump presided over a UN Security Council meeting focusing on children in conflict, one of her signature issues, and acknowledged she was doing so at “challenging times” as the US has joined Israel in attacking Iran.

“The US stands with all of the children throughout the world,” she said, speaking generally and not specifically about the new war in the Middle East. “I hope soon peace will be yours.”

Trump was the first spouse of a world leader to take the president’s seat at the United Nations’ most powerful body, which is charged with ensuring global peace and security.

The wife of President Donald Trump was given the opportunity as the US takes over the council presidency for the month of March. In the past, presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers have often wielded the gavel.

Hanging over the meeting on Monday (New York time) was what Iranian state media says was an airstrike that hit a girls’ school in southern Iran, killing at least 165 people and wounding dozens more.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area. The US military said it was looking into the reports, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that “the United States will not deliberately target a school”.

Shortly before Monday’s session began, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said it was “deeply shameful and hypocritical” for the US to convene a meeting on protecting children during conflict while launching airstrikes on Iranian cities.

“For the United States, ‘protecting children’ and ‘maintaining international peace and security’ clearly mean something very different from what the UN Charter provides,” he told reporters.

UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said the world body was aware of the reports of deaths at the girls’ school. She noted the impact the US-Israeli strikes and the Iranian retaliatory strikes were having on children across the region.

“We have been reminded of this truth over the last two days,” she told the Security Council. “Schools in Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman have closed and moved to remote learning owing to the ongoing military operations in the region,” she said.

In her address, Melania Trump said “peace does not have to be fragile”.

“Enduring peace will be achieved when knowledge and understanding are fully valued within all our societies,” she said, urging members of the Security Council to “safeguard learning”.

While the first lady spoke of a need to protect children and their access to education and technology in conflict, her husband’s administration has cut funding for a number of UN agencies and other international organisations that address these issues.

Among them is the U.N. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict, which provides detailed reporting on the impact that conflicts have on children around the world. This information can help trigger action to prevent rape and violence against women and children. President Trump withdrew US support in January.

The US has also dramatically cut funding for the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, and has withdrawn from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.

DiCarlo told the council the world is facing the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II. “The number of civilians killed in these conflicts is the highest in decades,” she said. “Our reality is clear: When conflicts erupt, children are among those most severely affected.”

The first lady arrived at UN headquarters in a motorcade and was greeted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. She shook hands with each of the 15 Security Council members and posed for a group photo.

The rotating president of the council gets to choose the subject and participants for some meetings. Monday’s meeting was scheduled before the war began.

The council’s last meeting, on Saturday, was a contentious emergency session called in response to the start of the war. Guterres condemned the US and Israeli airstrikes as violations of international law, including the UN Charter. He also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations in the Middle East.

Melania Trump took the unusual step last year of writing a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin before his summit with her husband and later announced that the effort had led to a group of children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war being reunited with their families.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so they could be raised as Russians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has lobbied world leaders for help to reunite families.

AP

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