DUBAI: Iran’s delegation walked out and Israel’s president cancelled his speech as tensions over the Gaza crisis spilled over at the UN COP28 climate talks in Dubai on Friday.

“It is impossible not to touch on the humanitarian crisis taking place in Palestinian territories close to us,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the environmental meeting.

“The incidents taking place in Gaza are a humanitarian crime, a war crime,” added the Turkish leader, while the presidents of Colombia and Cuba both called the Israeli aggression “genocide”.

But Israeli President Isaac Herzog did not appear for his scheduled speech, a day after his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas cancelled his planned visit to COP28.

Qatar’s emir, originally listed as one of Friday’s speakers, was missing from the final line-up.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not attend the meeting, despite being scheduled to give the first speech.

No reason was given for Friday’s last-minute changes.

France said it regrets the end of a truce and called for its restoration. “Rupture of the truce is very bad news, regrettable, because it brings no solution and complicates the resolution of all questions that arise,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on the sidelines of the conference. She called a truce resumption “essential”.

Iran’s team abruptly quit COP28 in protest at Israel’s presence, which delegation chief and Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian said was “contrary to the goals and guidelines of the conference”, according to the official news agency IRNA.

IRNA had said late on Thursday that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi would not attend COP28 and Mehrabian would take his place.

Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid used his speech to “condemn the aggressive assault against Gaza”.

“We call upon the international community to stand firm against this assault,” he said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country was “appalled at the tragedy that is underway in Gaza”, the aggression against the innocent people.

“Palestine is a war crime that must be ended.” When King Abdullah II of Jordan, one of the first speakers, raised the subject of Gaza, one delegate started clapping, before quickly stopping when no one else joined in.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed their deep regret over the collapse of the humanitarian pause in Gaza when they met at COP28 in Dubai, Sunak’s office said in a statement.

Other leaders also criticised the unrest, but there was no mention from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a frontline state that shares a border with Gaza.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2023