Argentine President Javier Milei delivered a blistering attack on the United Nations during his address to the General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, describing the international body as “useless" and accusing its officials of acting as “fatally arrogant parasites."
Milei opened his speech by acknowledging the principles behind the UN’s creation, including peaceful conflict resolution and the promotion of freedom and human dignity. But he argued that the organization has abandoned those ideals.
"That’s to say, it has become a useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats," he charged.
Milei accused the UN of responding to its failures by reinforcing rather than reconsidering its policies. "every time [the UN] failed, rather than reviewing the model or apologizing, they doubled down."
He also attacked the organization’s record on international security and human rights. "Those who were supposed to guarantee collective security and human rights failed in their task. They allowed chaos, violence and international terrorism to flourish," he said.
"The alleged defenders of human rights have sheltered bloodthirsty dictatorships and regimes that stone women in the streets; they have systematically voted against Israel while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa."
Milei then turned to Argentina’s dispute over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. "And if that were not enough, an organization established to defend the territorial sovereignty of its members decided to look the other way with regard to the situation of the Malvinas [Falkland] Islands, South Georgia Islands, South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas."
He argued that the issue demonstrates a broader disconnect between international institutions and reality, saying the islands "are a test of the gulf that exists between the words of international institutions and the reality upon which they purport to act."
"There's no shortage of words or resolutions; what is lacking is consequences," he asserted. "Because an institution that cannot ensure that its words carry weight in the real world loses the most important thing of all, its authority."
Milei further accused the UN of creating what he called a "bureaucratic leviathan" that seeks to dictate how people should live. "This amounts to a curious mixture of anarchy and tyranny, impotence in the face of those who break the most basic rules, such as bloodthirsty dictatorships and terrorist organizations coupled with Orwellian control and impositions on liberal democracies that abide by the rules."
The Argentine president made similar criticisms of the UN during his 2024 General Assembly address, when he focused in particular on the organization’s anti-Israel bias. He criticized the organization for "voting against the State of Israel, the only country in the Middle East to defend liberal democracy."
"We have simultaneously shown a total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism," he added.
"In this same house, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela without reproach," Milei said.
Following that speech, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon met with Milei and praised his remarks.
“I was moved to hear the speech of the President of Argentina at the General Assembly. President Milei, you are a true friend of the State of Israel. In this hall where we were slandered all day, you showed courage and supported Israel! Thank you," Danon wrote in a post on social media at the time.