United Nations, Sep 24 (IANS) Libya's maverick leader Moammar Gadhafi made his debut appearance at the United Nations with a long and rambling diatribe stepping on quite a few toes including India's as he uttered the "K" word.
The Libyan leader was introduced as "king of kings" by his countryman Ali Terki, the president of this year's UN General Assembly, at its annual session Wednesday.
Then, dressed in his familiar black beret and sweeping his flowing brown Bedouin robe behind him, the notoriously charismatic leader strode to the stage with a yellow folder and a copy of the UN charter.
For the next 96 minutes, he talked. He tossed the K bomb at New Delhi saying Kashmir should be an independent buffer state between India and Pakistan. At one point, he even blamed India and Japan for robbing Somalia of its fishing wealth, forcing Somalis to take up piracy.
His other topics ranged from the UN Security Council to the assassination of US president John F. Kennedy to a one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians: Isratine.
Gadhafi began his speech like many other leaders, welcoming President Obama as the leader of the host nation of the General Assembly and congratulating him on his first General Assembly session. Obama spoke immediately before Gadhafi and left the hall before the Libyan leader took the stage.
The diplomatic niceties ended there. Speaking without a text and referring only to a few handwritten pages, Gadhafi launched into a blistering attack on the Security Council, and he blamed the United Nations for failing to prevent more than six dozen wars since the world body was founded in 1945.
"It should not be called the Security Council, it should be called the 'terror council,' " Gadhafi said. The Council should "implement the will of the General Assembly," which should be a "world parliament," he said.
Gadhafi railed against what he called "inequality" of UN member states, quoting from a copy of the UN charter, which calls for equality of nations.