Dutch caretaker prime minister Dick Schoof has underlined the importance of the United Nations in a speech at the organisation’s general assembly in New York, following a scathing attack by president Donald Trump.

“Without the UN there would not have been disarmament agreements, no international court of justice. (…) Without the UN, which is often the only organisation acapable of lending support in the most inaccessible places on earth, millions of people would be left without food,” Schoof said during the assembly’s general debate.

Schoof’s remarks came after Trump accused the organisation of inaction and of bandying  “empty words” that “don’t solve wars.”

Schoof emphasised the role of the UN in the international rule of law, and referred to the consequences of the war in Ukraine, the famine in Sudan and the “horrors that are being perpetrated in Gaza”.

“Every day we see more heartrending scenes from the region,” he said. “There is only one answer: this war, this suffering, must stop.”

The Dutch government would continue to urge the Israeli government to change course drastically. “The annexation of the West Bank and Gaza City is unacceptable and we condemn all steps in that direction,” he said.

Schoof shied away from the fact his government has not yet recognised the state of Palestine, despite several other European countries having done so.