YouSaid · the spoken record

Antony J. Blinken

lines on the record: 26
first: 2021-03-29
most recent: 2021-08-09
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That has never been more true than it is today, and it makes the collective effort to defend, strengthen and build upon this order more urgent than ever.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“All of these activities require that we share information and coordinate our responses, that we help to build the capacity of our maritime partners and that we engage with affected communities, industry and non-governmental organizations, which are critically important allies in this effort. Together, our nations have spent decades building this maritime order and the broader rules-based international system of which it is a part. We have done so out of a shared recognition that it benefits all our nations and all our peoples when Governments accept certain constraints on their actions rather than living in a world where the strong do what they can and where those who are less powerful feel coerced and threatened.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“We must bring the same coordinated and comprehensive responses to other threats to maritime safety and security. These include illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which undermines the sustainability of fish stocks, circumvents agreed conservation and management measures and violates the sovereign rights of coastal States, and often goes hand in hand with the use of forced labour and other illicit activities. It also includes responding to environmental disasters, like in the cooperation between Sri Lanka, the United States and other countries to mitigate the impact of the merchant vessel X-Press Pearl catastrophe.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“We see it in India’s maritime fusion centre, which has enhanced cooperation among Indian Ocean partners, and in the widespread ratification by countries of the Caribbean Basin of the Agreement concerning Cooperation in Suppressing Illicit Maritime and Air Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in the Caribbean Area. We see it in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which has demonstrated significant success in building an effective regional response, most notably in law enforcement. The United States led the creation of this group, and we remain active in its work and in coordinating naval operations to prevent a resurgence of piracy in the area. We are grateful to fellow Security Council members for supporting annual resolutions to help coordinate and strengthen these efforts.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Non-State actors also pose a serious risk to maritime safety and security, from pirates and illicit maritime traffickers in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean to pirates and armed robbers in the Gulf of Guinea and drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Yet our collective response to these actors shows how effective we can be when we work together to defend maritime order and hold accountable those who violate it. We see that, in the African-led Yaoundé architecture for maritime safety and security, which was supported by the Group of Friends of the Gulf of Guinea, and in the Nigerian-led Deep Blue Project and maritime collaborative forum.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Failing to do so will only fuel their sense of impunity and embolden others inclined to disregard the maritime order. In the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, we see continued aggressive actions against Ukraine with dangerous incursions on the sea and in the air and the harassment of vessels, which are disrupting commerce and energy access. We reaffirm our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters. Crimea is Ukraine. When nations ignore or purport to redraw the borders of other nations, whether by land or by sea, they undermine the sovereign equality of Member States, a guiding principle of the United Nations.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“On 29 July 2021, the Mercer Street, a commercial ship that was peacefully transiting international waters in the north Arabian Sea, was attacked using explosive unmanned aerial vehicles, resulting in the deaths of two people. Upon review of the available information, we are confident that Iran conducted this unjustified attack, which is part of a pattern of attacks and other provocative behaviour. These actions threaten freedom of navigation through this crucial waterway, international shipping and commerce, and the lives of people on the vessels involved. On behalf of the United States, I reiterate my condolences to the families of the victims and to the United Kingdom and Romania. It is on all of our nations to hold accountable those responsible.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Some may assert that resolving the dispute in the South China Sea is not the business of the United States or any other country that is not a claimant to the islands and waters. But it is the business and, even more, the responsibility of every Member State to defend the rules that we have all agreed to follow and to peacefully resolve maritime disputes. Conflict in the South China Sea or in any ocean would have serious global consequences for security and for commerce. What is more, when a State faces no consequences for ignoring these rules, it fuels greater impunity and instability everywhere. States are also provocatively and unlawfully advancing their interests in the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“Five years ago, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 delivered a unanimous and legally binding decision to the parties before firmly rejecting unlawful, expansive South China Sea maritime claims as being inconsistent with international law. The United States has consistently called for all countries to conform their maritime claims to the international law of the sea as reflected in the Convention. This is in keeping with the peaceful resolution of disputes and the sovereign equality of Member States, which are core principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Efforts to resolve maritime disputes through threat or use of force flout these principles.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“That is why I am grateful for India’s leadership in bringing us together today and calling on all nations to recommit to defending and strengthening the maritime rules and principles that we forged together and committed to uphold. Let me just speak, if I could, specifically to some of the critical areas where we see maritime rules and principles under threat. In the South China Sea, we have seen dangerous encounters between vessels at sea and provocative actions to advance unlawful maritime claims. The United States has made clear its concerns regarding actions that intimidate and bully other States from lawfully accessing their maritime resources. And we and other countries, including South China Sea claimants, have protested such behaviour and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“The international community has long benefited f rom a rules-based maritime order where international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, sets out the legal framework for all activities in the ocean and seas. But despite having a clear body of international law that we have all committed to abide by and uphold, despite all the ways in which freedom of the seas, open waterways, and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce have delivered for nations and peoples around the world, and despite the indispensable role that this maritime order has played in fostering economic activity, security cooperation, scientific innovation and environmental sustainability – despite all of that, the order is under serious threat.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“When I last had the chance to address the Council back in May, it was to underscore the importance of defending, upholding and revitalizing the rules -based international order grounded in the Charter of the United Nations. Few issues are more crucial to that endeavour than the future of our ocean. The ocean not only covers 70 per cent of the Earth and accounts for 97 per cent of its water, but it is crucial to the livelihoods of our peoples and the sustainability of our planet. Maritime safety and security are enduring interests of all nations (interruption). Freedom of navigation and overflight and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce are also critical to the security and prosperity of nations and to global stability.”
2021-08-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/722 (2021) · source
“The lives of people in Syria depend on getting urgent help. We have to do everything in our power to create ways for that aid to get to them — to open pathways, not to close them. The members of the Council have a job to do: reauthorize all three border crossings for humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people; stop taking part in, or making excuses for, attacks that close these pathways; and stop targeting humanitarian aid workers and the Syrian civilians they are trying to help. Stop making humanitarian assistance, on which millions of Syrians’ lives depends, a political issue, waiting in hope for the Security Council, waiting in hope for the Security Council, waiting in hope for the Security Council. Let us end the wait. Let us take action. Let us help people in Syria.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“Many Syrians do not even have a reliable supply of clean water and soap to wash their hands. There is approximately one Syrian doctor for every 10,000 civilians in Syria. The hospitals that remain are still being attacked by the regime and its backers, as we saw with the Al-Atarib hospital. Already doctors, nurses and health workers in Syria are getting sick and dying at alarming rates due to COVID-19; that is only going to get worse. And perhaps none in Syria are more vulnerable than the thousands who are being unjustifiably detained in the regime’s inhumane prisons — many for daring to speak out against its atrocities — and the 6.7 million Syrians who have been internally displaced by the ongoing conflict. The Security Council takes up so many challenges that are complicated. This is not one of them.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“If we ask that question, the work before the Council is simple: reauthorize the crossings, stop enabling the obstruction of aid and allow humanitarians and humanitarian aid unhindered access so that they can reach Syrians in need wherever they are, as quickly as possible. Unhindered access to Syrians is more important than ever — not only because of the growing humanitarian crisis, but also because of the threat posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). All members of the Council has witnessed in their own country the devastating impact of the pandemic — the lives it takes and how it ravages livelihoods and economies. Syria today provides the ideal conditions for the virus to spread. Social distancing is impossible when one is jostling for a spot in a crowded bread line.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“Let me propose a different approach: let us reauthorize both border crossings that have been closed and reauthorize the one that remains open. Let us give ourselves more pathways, rather than fewer pathways, to deliver food and medicine to the Syrian people. Let us commit to using whatever pathway is the safest, quickest way to reach people who are going hungry and dying for need of medicine. And let us not pressure Syrian refugees to return until they feel that they can do so in safety and in dignity. Let us ask a simple question that will guide our decision on reauthorizing cross-border crossings and on all questions of delivering aid to people in Syria: what will do the most to reduce the suffering of Syrian children, women and men?”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“As Secretary-General Guterres has said, “Intensified cross-line and cross-border aid deliveries are essential” to reach all Syrians in need. It is also not in the interests of the Syrian people to pressure Syrian refugees to return to Syria, including to regime-held areas, where many fear they will be arbitrarily detained, tortured or even killed by Al-Assad’s security forces in retaliation for fleeing. We agree with the United Nations that refugee returns must be voluntary and well informed and should ensure the safety and dignity of the people involved, or else they should not happen. The current approach is unjustified, ineffective and indefensible. It is directly resulting in the increased suffering of the Syrian people.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“But sovereignty was never intended to ensure the right of any Government to starve people, deprive them of lifesaving medicine, bomb hospitals or commit any other human rights abuses against citizens. Others on the Council may argue, as they have in the past, that we should rely more on cross-line assistance to deliver aid to people in Syria — claiming it is more efficient. But as we have seen, relying more on cross-line assistance has resulted in less aid — not more — getting to the Syrian people. The failure to authorize border crossings is clearly not in the interests of the Syrian people. It is not what is recommended by United Nations experts or humanitarian experts, and it has nothing to do with the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“In their absence, delivering aid is costlier, more perilous and less efficient. It also means that when the sole remaining crossing becomes inaccessible for any reason — as happened last week when it was bombed by Russian forces — aid may be halted altogether. The reduction of border crossings also means that more United Nations aid convoys are forced to cross multiple lines of control, negotiating access with various armed opposition groups, travelling longer distances, all of which leaves more ways in which aid can be slowed or stopped before it gets to the Syrian people and more ways in which aid workers can themselves be targeted. Now some may argue that reauthorizing humanitarian crossings and providing cross-border aid would in some way infringe on the sovereignty of the Syrian regime.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“At present, the most efficient and effective way to get the most aid to the most people in the north-west and north- east is through border crossings. Yet the Security Council has recently allowed the authorization for two border crossings to lapse: Bab Al-Salam, in the north-west, which used to deliver aid to approximately 4 million Syrians; and Al-Yarubiyah, in the north-east, which brought aid to another 1.3 million Syrians. We have a responsibility to ensure Syrians have access to life-saving assistance, no matter where they live. Given that goal, there was no good reason at the time for the Council’s failure to reauthorize these two humanitarian crossings. There is no good reason for the crossings to remain closed today. The crossings provided a path for delivering aid that was more economical, safer and more efficient.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“Together with our allies and partners, the United States continues to support Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Pedersen’s efforts towards this end. But even as we work towards that solution, we cannot lose sight of the urgent needs of the Syrian people that we have heard described so eloquently today. It is clear that those needs, including having enough to eat and access to essential medicine, are not going to be met by the Al-Assad regime. So, again, the question before us is: What can the Security Council do to help the millions of Syrians whose lives hang in the balance? In the short term, we know the answer and it is simple — we must ensure that Syrians get the humanitarian aid they need.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“The hospital’s coordinates had been shared — again, as we heard — with the United Nations-led deconfliction mechanism, meaning the regime knew exactly where it was. Al-Atarib Hospital, which is now closed, had previously seen an average of 3,650 people every month. On the same day the Al-Assad regime struck the hospital, Russian air strikes struck near the only United Nations-authorized border crossing with Syria, killing a civilian, destroying humanitarian supplies, putting the most effective way of getting aid to the Syrian people at risk. While today’s meeting is focused on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, it is important to note that the only long-term solution to this suffering is through a political settlement and permanent resolution to the conflict, as outlined in resolution 2254 (2015).”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“That is our responsibility, and shame on us if we do not meet it. Meanwhile, the brave people who put their lives on the line to try to help the Syrian people continue to be targeted. On 21 March, the Al-Assad regime shelled the Al-Atarib Surgical Hospital in western Aleppo, reportedly killing seven people, including, as we heard, two children — cousins aged 10 and 12 years old. The attack also wounded 15 people, including a doctor who had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his eye. He will never see again. The hospital had been bombed by the regime before, in 2014, and, as we heard from Dr. Ballour, had to be rebuilt underground, in hopes that doing so would keep people safe if it were targeted again. Well, the cave could not keep them safe.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“We heard Dr. Ballour say that she is waiting on the Security Council with hope — waiting on the Security Council with hope. Look, we all sit in these chairs, we speak these words, we represent our countries, but how is it possible that we cannot find in our hearts the common humanity to actually take meaningful action to do something? How is that possible? I have two young children of my own. I suspect many members of the Council have young children or grandchildren. I think of my kids when I think of the Syrian children we have heard talked about today. I ask my fellow Council members to do the same thing — think of yours, look into your hearts and then talk to your colleagues. And despite our differences, we have to find a way to do something to take action to help people.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“Sixty per cent of Syrians are at serious risk of going hungry. Every month, the Security Council gathers to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria and these massive numbers are rattled off. In the process, it is all too easy to lose sight of the fact that contained in each one of these numbers are the lives of individual human beings. Like the Syrian mother who recently told a reporter she was so desperate to feed her three children that she faced a choice: “I had to sell my hair or my body”. She sold her hair for $55. For two days after, she wept with shame. But with that money, she bought heating oil and food and clothes for her three kids. That is one mother — for one Syrian family. Now remember that 12.4 million people in Syria are food insecure, and one begins to sense the magnitude of human suffering in this conflict.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source
“I thank Under-Secretary-General Lowcock and Executive Director Fore for their thorough and candid briefings and for the vital work the United Nations is doing to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Syria. I also thank Dr. Ballour, both for the life-saving service he performed for his fellow Syrians amidst the most harrowing circumstances and for his powerful, determined efforts to bring the experiences of the Syrian people to the world and to push for their rights to be respected. This month marks the tenth anniversary of the Syrian uprising. After a decade of conflict in which the Syrian people have suffered immeasurably, the situation is as grave as ever. As we have heard, an estimated 13.4 million people — two in every three Syrians — are in need of humanitarian assistance.”
2021-03-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/315 (2021) · source