New York — Foreign Minister Madam Sara Beysolow Nyanti has called on the international community to move beyond managing crises in the Middle East and instead commit to deliberate, sustained choices that lead to lasting peace, warning that continued delay and inaction amount to both a moral failure and a strategic catastrophe.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
Speaking on Wednesday at a high-level United Nations Security Council debate on the Middle East convened by Somalia, Minister Nyanti said the region’s conflicts represent “a chain reaction of wars, reprisals, and unresolved grievances,” rather than isolated crises.
“The Middle East is not a distant theater of conflict,” Nyanti told the Council, chaired by Somalia’s Permanent Representative, Abukar Dahir Osman. “It is a central test of whether this Council can still shape outcomes rather than merely catalog suffering.”
Nyanti served for nearly two decades in several high-level positions at the United Nations. Before she was appointed Liberia’s Foreign Minister, she was the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in South Sudan.
Drawing on Liberia’s own post-conflict experience, Nyanti stressed that peace cannot be achieved by silencing guns alone, but through early, deliberate, and sustained political choices. She delivered a stark account of the humanitarian toll of prolonged conflict, particularly on children, noting that many are born, live, and die under bombardment, siege, and displacement.
“This is happening in real time,” she said. “Children are growing up inside the wreckage of our choices, inheriting wars they did not declare and hatred they did not choose.”
Despite the grim realities, Nyanti acknowledged recent diplomatic efforts aimed at reducing violence and reopening political space, particularly initiatives led by Qatar, Egypt, the United States, and other regional and international partners. She cautioned, however, that such progress remains fragile and must be actively sustained.
“History shows that diplomatic openings close not because they are imperfect, but because they are abandoned,” she warned.
On the Israel-Palestine conflict, Nyanti reaffirmed Liberia’s support for an immediate and sustained de-escalation of violence, expanded and predictable humanitarian access, and a negotiated two-state solution consistent with relevant UN Security Council resolutions. She emphasized that security without political legitimacy cannot endure and that crisis management cannot replace a genuine peace process.
“Force can dominate a movement, but only justice can shape a future,” she said.
The Liberian foreign minister also raised concerns about rising tensions along the Israel-Lebanon Blue Line, the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria amid political paralysis, and fragile de-escalation efforts in Yemen, urging renewed commitment to dialogue and inclusive political solutions.
In her closing remarks, Nyanti called for expanded humanitarian corridors into Gaza and other conflict zones, stronger protection for children, schools, and hospitals, and sustained diplomatic momentum to restore political legitimacy and economic stability for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Liberia, she said, stands ready to work with all Security Council members and partners toward a Middle East defined not by perpetual war, but by dignity, justice, and the freedom for ordinary people to build peaceful lives.
