Ireland minister: `The world is a crazy and tragic place’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ireland’s foreign minister says “the world is a crazy and tragic place at the moment.” Siimon Coveney pointed to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, looming famine in the Horn of Africa, Iran’s expanding nuclear program, global impacts of climate change and a polarized U.N. Security Council as some of the major challenges. In a wide-ranging AP interview Wednesday he also expressed hope that quiet ongoing negotiations between Britain, Ireland and the European Commission can resolve difficult Brexit issues by April 10 next year, the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland.