AlQa'dah 3, 1433, Sep 19, 2012, SPA - The United Nations General Assembly Tuesday opened its sixty-seventh session with a call for cooperation to tackle economic and political uncertainty around the world and to find peaceful solutions to international disputes. "Peace and security is a prerequisite for the stability needed for global economic growth, sustainable development and social progress," incoming President Vuk Jeremic of Serbia said as he took over the presidency of the 193-nation body. Jeremic said the main focus for this year's session was the peaceful settlement of international disputes. "I hope this framework will usefully serve the noble cause of preventing gathering conflicts and resolving existing ones," he said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Jeremic on his new role and thanked the former president of the Assembly, Qatar's Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, for his leadership over the past year. "We are living through a period of unease. These are times of rising unemployment, rising inequality, rising temperatures, and rising intolerance," Ban said. "The United Nations must rise to the moment." For his part, Al-Nasser said the General Assembly had stood "strong, active, and responsive" to global challenges over the past year. World leaders will begin to converge on New York City later this week for the high-level segment of the General Assembly, which begins Monday.
