YouSaid · the spoken record

Blair

lines on the record

11

first

2000-09-07

most recent

2005-09-14

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

1. “We should show our own strength and belief in the values of democracy and tolerance, and, above all, we should demonstrate that the future, however hard the path to it is, does not and never will belong to fanatics, but will be with those who believe that we should live in peace with each other, whatever our race, nation, colour or religion. They do, indeed, have their strategy, but we have ours, and we should use it to defeat them.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

2. “It is a doctrine of fanaticism, and we must unite to uproot it by cooperating on security, as people have said; by taking action against those who incite, preach or teach this extremism, wherever they are in whichever country; and also by eliminating our own ambivalence by fighting not just the methods of this terrorism, but also the terrorists' motivation, twisted reasoning and wretched excuses for terror. At the same time, of course, by contrast, we should fulfil our duty to act against injustice. All of us strongly support the resolution on conflict prevention in Africa.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

3. “If not those issues, we must never forget that the events of 11 September 2001, which happened just a short distance from here, were before Iraq or Afghanistan and when there was an active attempt to bring peace to the Middle East. If not those, they will use Chechnya, they will use Kashmir or Bosnia; and if none of those, it will be the Western presence in Arab States. And when all of that fails, those States themselves will be blamed, or any State that is not Talibanized. The root cause, therefore, is not a decision on foreign policy, however contentious.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

4. “Around this table two years ago, we were divided over Iraq, but by June 2003 there was in place a new United Nations resolution and a new United Nations-backed political process to give democracy to Iraqis - which they want, as 8.5 million of them showed by voting for it. The obstacle is terrorism. The victims are largely Muslim. How obscene it is, therefore, for these terrorists to claim that their terror is in response to our aggression against Muslims in Iraq. They use Iraq to divide us, just as they use Afghanistan, where, again, their terror is the obstacle to Afghan democracy; and just as they use Palestine, where terrorism does not create progress, but destroys it.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

5. “It will not be defeated until we unite not just in condemning the acts of terrorism, which we all do, but in fighting the poisonous propaganda that the root cause of this terrorism somehow lies with us around this table and not with them. They want us to believe that, somehow, it is our fault and that their extremism is somehow our responsibility. They play on our divisions; they exploit our hesitations. This is our weakness, and they know it. We must unite against this ghastly game with our conscience. There are real injustices in our world: poverty, which it is our duty to eradicate; conflicts, not least that between Israel and Palestine, which it is our duty to help resolve; and nation-building, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, which it is our responsibility to help deliver. But none of this has caused this terrorism.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

6. “First of all, on behalf of the United Kingdom, let me thank everyone for supporting today's resolution. We should not underestimate what we face. The terrorism that today again has claimed the lives of innocent people - this time, queuing for jobs in Iraq - and has now disfigured countries in every continent, at every stage of development, with every conceivable mix of races and religions, is a movement. It has an ideology and it has a strategy, and the strategy is not just to kill. It is, by terror, to cause chaos and instability and to divide and confuse us, its enemy. It will not be defeated until our determination is as complete as theirs, our defence of freedom as absolute as their fanaticism, our passion for the democratic way as great as their passion for tyranny.”

   2005-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5261 (2005) · source

7. “I think that what we have got to do is to match the vigour of his ambition with our response and carry this through. If we do, we will end up not with just a modernized Security Council but a far better, more effective way of dealing with these problems of conflict in the world today. The final point we all really acknowledge is that in today's world it is not just technology and the economy that are global. We are interdependent in a way we have never been before, so it means that we must change our own perspective in thinking to face up to that modern reality.”

   2000-09-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4194 (2000) · source

8. “Let us be clear there were real, competing spheres of influence that people clung to very tenaciously. Today, I think we have a very important common interest, and that is in the maintenance of order and stability - not order so that change does not happen, for change is necessary, but order so that change happens without chaos. I think that many of the things that we will face today in these conflicts are things like fundamentalism, extremism, terrorism - things that 30 or 40 years ago we would not have recognized as requiring quite the priority they do today. It is a changing pattern, therefore, of context in which we look at conflict resolution and prevention. What -does this lead to? It leads surely to this. We have in the Secretary-General a man who has put forward a plan and programme for reform of the way that we work.”

   2000-09-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4194 (2000) · source

9. “We need to be better organized, better resourced and better disciplined to carry out the tougher but more important work. The third point is this. I think we all recognize now that we cannot deal with these problems of security and conflict without dealing with the causes of conflict too. Whether it is poverty, debt, aid and development, infectious diseases or Governments and the rule of law, we need a far broader concept of how we deal with these security issues for today's world. We cannot isolate a conflict from its root causes. Fourthly, of course we all have our own interests as countries around this table. But I think there's a big difference between the type of debate we will have today and what it might have been 15, 20, or 30 years ago.”

   2000-09-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4194 (2000) · source

10. “We are putting our people into situations of far greater difficulty than traditionally was the case, situations not often well defined and where the hazards from local militia or other people are far greater than before. Secondly, at the same time, however, the need for peacekeeping has never been greater. Indeed, in certain of the circumstances we can all think of, it is utterly determinative of the difference between anarchy and some form of stability in the countries concerned. Sierra Leone is an obvious example. East Timor, Bosnia - all are areas where these peacekeepers are having to perform a hard task, but it has never been more important. The conclusion from these two points is that the Brahimi reforms are absolutely essential.”

    2000-09-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4194 (2000) · source

11. “Mr. Blair: First of all, Mr. President, our congratulations to you on hosting this meeting. Ijoin in the expressions of outrage at the murder of United Nations staff in West Timor. I pay tribute to all our personnel, both military and civilian, who are under the banner of the United Nations around the world and who are good and brave people. Many of them, I am proud to say, are from my own country. I also support fully the cause for reform of the Security Council itself. In focusing on conflict resolution and prevention, I want to make four brief points. First, peacekeeping today is a lot tougher and more difficult than before.”

    2000-09-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4194 (2000) · source