YouSaid · the spoken record

Kerry

lines on the record: 74
first: 2013-09-27
most recent: 2023-06-13
sittings or episodes: 5
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

“We still can win this fight, and I hope that the Security Council is going to be given plenty of opportunities in the next months in order to help do that.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“We can avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis, according to what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2018 in its warning to us, but the time and clock are ticking. This is not a matter of building capacity; it is a matter of living up to the promises that we made. We made promises in Paris; we made promises in Glasgow; we reiterated those promises in Sharm El-Sheikh; and we cannot just go to Dubai and reiterate them yet again. Every member of the Security Council, permanent and otherwise, has to renew ambition and resolve what is necessary to win this fight. That is in all of our security interests, spread evenly among us, and it is only by working together that we can repair the planet and defend all nations against one of the greatest threats the world has ever known.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“We therefore have to recommit to our 2030 Goals and not only to those, because if we do not do enough by 2030, then there will be no net zero by 2050. That goal will be unachievable. There will be no keeping the 1.5°C. It will be gone. The decisive decade is now, and we need to step up with better plans and real plans with respect to 2050. Those are the things that we have to do in order to ensure the safety of our citizens and — no small objective — to ensure the security of the planet worldwide. I emphasize one observation — that, obviously, the time for talk is well behind us. We have the tools and technology we need in order to achieve a 45 per cent reduction by 2030, but not all of us are applying it.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“And even if we get to net zero by 2050, we still have to suck 1.6 trillion tons or so of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. That means that we have to have some carbon capture in order to do that. The goal ahead of us is absolutely clear — we need to end the permitting of new, unabated coal plants now. Unabated means that we would not be capturing any emissions. And we need to pool the financing together — and that is in the trillions. I am glad to say that next week, in Paris, President Macron’s Climate Finance Summit will take place and, hopefully, we will expand the ideas for blended financing and for the terms we need in order to achieve this goal. Knowing what we know about this crisis, no country should be bringing online new sources of pollution from anywhere.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“It is the unabated burning of fossil fuels that is creating the problem. The issue is therefore whether or not we — all of us — are going to move to do enough about it. Forty-eight countries account for 0.55 per cent of emissions. Twenty countries account for 76 per cent of all the emissions. We all pledged in Paris and in Glasgow and in Sharm El-Sheikh to get on a glide path to 1.5°C, but we are not all doing it. I am not here to point fingers. Every one of our countries need to work together. We have technologies; we can do things; we have great universities; we have great laboratories. We can do more to be able to bring ourselves together to deal with this crisis. In the end, only one thing is going to save us from ourselves — meeting the target the scientists are giving us with respect to the reduction of emissions.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“Thirdly, there will be a global stock-taking, which will be a stark assessment of where we are. Nobody will be particularly pleased. But it also must be more than that: it will have to show what the road map is going forward. That is the best stock-taking we could deliver to the world. We need to make sure we try to do that. We must respond to reality. This is the way we see the reality: 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa account for 0.55 per cent of all emissions. The challenge we face is therefore not coming externally from some threat. It is not a nation that is trying to grab more territory. It is not the politics or even the drive of one authoritarian leader or another to dominate. The challenge we face is us. It is everybody. It is the way we choose to heat our homes, light our factories, propel our vehicles.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“I would remind Council members that, here, in the United States, after we finally got the Inflation Reduction Act — the most important legislation we have ever passed and which is already having a dramatic impact on choices — signed into law, President Biden created the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience plan, which is now helping half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of the climate crisis by 2030. It has been mentioned by several speakers that, in approximately six months, many of us are going to gather in Dubai for COP28. There are already three mandated outcomes. The first is winning the challenge of adaptation. An adaptation report will be delivered. Secondly, we will address loss and damage, whose dynamic we changed successfully, but not completely, in Sharm El-Sheikh.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“We have to integrate those threats into the New Agenda for Peace and reimagine how the United Nations system itself can best address the growing impact of this crisis on world security. Specifically, we have to ensure that the climate crisis is included in the conflict-prevention and mediation efforts of United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide. We all need to help make that happen.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“That is why we welcome the peace and security issue, and the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which was announced in this Chamber by the President of the Council in her capacity as Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates. Obviously, if we are going to resolve this, the Security Council and the United Nations will have to step up and be heard from even more than they have been heard from to date. We certainly understand the Secretary-General’s frustration at the lack of action about which he has been constantly reminding us. We need to pledge our resources to the Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All initiative, and we need to make sure that it takes into account the needs of the most vulnerable people.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“No one in this Chamber can deny the way the politics of certain countries have changed dramatically, and not for the better, as a consequence of the movement of people, the conflicts we face and the disruptions to our economies. Last year, in Pakistan, we saw 30 million people displaced by just one event. Without action, therefore, the instability produced by climate disruptions is only going to grow, and climate-driven events will increasingly stress our peacekeepers and our countries’ militaries. A number of years ago, our military at the highest level, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came to the conclusion that the climate crisis is a threat multiplier. All of the other forces that create wars or conflict are multiplied as a consequence of what happens with this struggle.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“How many issues on the Security Coun- cil’s agenda can one say that of? There is no room for debate on the science in that regard. The crisis is grow- ing. It is undermining our collective peace and security. Without concerted action from this body and every sin- gle governmental entity that deals with these issues, the impact of the crisis on the world is going to get worse, and it will continue to threaten our peace, our lives and our security in greater fashion, every day and every year that we do not do what we know we need to do. Furthermore, one should not minimize the degree to which the droughts, the floods and the fires that we are experiencing are driving mass economic, social, political and environmental disruptions and the displacement of human beings around the world, which in its own way creates chaos.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“Today the Horn of Africa has experienced the worst droughts on record, driving crop failures and food shortages that make keeping peace difficult, as we heard from the Under-Secretary-General. Last October, United Nations peacekeepers in South Sudan had to deal with some of the worst floods the area had ever experienced, worsening an already terrible period of conflict. Everyone who was in New York last week had the unfortunate experience of dealing with the air quality, as we all inhaled smoke and could literally taste the impact of the fires in Canada, fuelled significantly by drought and heat. I am not saying exclusively created by drought and heat but fuelled very significantly to a certainty by them. There is no legitimate debate. There is no space for procrastination.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“The cost will rival the cost of many wars, even of those being fought today. Last year, as we heard from the Minister of Mozambique, double cyclones hit from Mozambique to Vanuatu. In the United States, we saw death and destruction in the wake of intensive tornadoes. In the United States alone, three storms several years ago were responsible for approximately $265 billion worth of damage. Yet we manage not to find the $100 billion we need. This year, we will find the $100 billion. This year we will have the $100 billion. But think how long that has taken. Obviously, we had a president who regrettably pulled us out of the Paris Agreement and set us back for the four years of his term by not putting any money in the budget for the issue.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“I do not think there is a single country that now lives sustainably, and not necessarily because that is what countries have actively chosen, since certain processes have been forced on them by virtue of the global economy. There is no finding peace solutions for the 7 million people a year around the world who die from the impact of greenhouse-gas pollution. We fail to call it pollution as frequently as we should, I think, because that is what it is. Without action, the costs of climate-crisis destruction will go up, and the spread of its impacts will grow. It is fair to say that the world we experienced last year will be a better world than the one we are going to experience this year or the ones we will see in the foreseeable future unless we do a better job of attacking the crisis itself.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“We see with our naked eyes and the observations that are now coming more rapidly in larger amounts than were predicted by the scientists and at a greater speed than was predicted by the scientists that there is really very little security against the most severe consequences of the crisis of extreme temperatures. Millions of people actually die every year now from extreme heat. We see the impacts of the spread of disease and the infestations of insects that live longer and attack the trees and forests of countries that depend on them more than ever before, bringing with it the loss of food. We see the chaos of mass migration, which has hardly reached the levels that it is predicted it will reach if we continue to have the biodestruction that is taking place on a global basis.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“Let me just begin by saying to everybody that it is now indisputable that the climate crisis is one of the top security threats, not just to the developed world but to the entire planet, to life on the planet itself. And it is a crisis that already today costs countries billions of dollars each year, which we spend not even to prevent at this point, but just to clean up the mess. And most important, it costs the world millions of lives. It is an active threat against the livelihoods and the peace of people everywhere on this planet.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“Let me begin by thanking, as others have, Under-Secretary- General Lacroix and my friend His Excellency President Santos Calderón. I also thank Ms. Salma Kadry very much for setting the stage for this important discussion. And I thank you, Madam President, for the leadership of the United Arab Emirates in calling this really critical meeting on the security implications of the climate crisis. I particularly take note of the comments of the representative from Mozambique, who really described the unfairness of the impacts and in effect defined one of the threats that will come out of this crisis that we all face as a consequence of the unfair distribution of the impacts and the unfair distribution of the causes. And I will say more about that in a moment.”
2023-06-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9345 (2023) · source
“We have the ability to do this, and I would simply like to say to everyone in the Chamber that I can think of few greater gifts that we and our generation could give to the next than an affirmation that we will continue to move away from the possibilities of nuclear weaponry. Our action today can show people everywhere that a world without nuclear weapons might actually be possible, and that we are going to do everything responsible in our capacity to make that day a reality.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“Our affirmative vote here is a sign of our unwavering commitment to a safer world in which nuclear technology is used solely for peaceful purposes and the risk of nuclear conflict is no more. Right now, the United States Government is engaged in a process with the Senate, where we have many new members who have not previously been part of this debate, in which we are beginning to literally explain to and educate those members about what the advances in technology do for us. In today's modern world of virtual capacity, computerization and artificial intelligence, we do not need to blow up weapons to know what we can do.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“Today, this morning, is an affirmation of our willingness to make that clear, to give that answer, to take a step that says we will not lose our commitment, we will remain committed to moving in the direction of ending the threat of nuclear war. Today is also a reminder of the value of the CTBT. The actions of the Democratic People's Republic ofKorea and our response demonstrate the effectiveness of the International Monitoring system, the International Data Centre and the broader verification and detection regime. This entire episode has offered a stark reminder of why the infrastructure of the Treaty is so vital and why adopting this draft resolution is so important.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“Two decades after that process began, therefore, there may be some who question the value of pursuing this Treaty or investing in its adoption, because the world has changed dramatically. Almost every member of the United Nations has now renounced the option of testing, and responsible Governments everywhere are committed to reducing the dangers that are posed by nuclear materials and nuclear weapons. Yet we have been reminded in recent weeks of the absolute necessity of supporting the CTBT. North Korea's latest nuclear test is a challenge to the Security Council's leadership. It is a challenge to the norm that I just articulated. It is a challenge and a direct threat to international stability and peace. It is a dangerous and reckless act of provocation that we have to summon a determined and effective answer to.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“Brilliant people have spent a lifetime looking at this - former Secretary of Defense Jim Schlesinger, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Bill Perry and Sam Nunn - people whom one would not expect to see talking about the possibility of a world without nuclear weapons. Most recently, the United States and Iran spent two long years negotiating what everybody thought was the improbable. Two nations that had not talked to each other since 1979 began a conversation in the room right in back of the Chamber, the first time I came here for the General Assembly. We turned that into a nation actually giving up a nuclear programme and making it clear to the world it was willing to move away from the path of a nuclear weapon in order to make the world safer.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“I can remember years in the Senate when I wanted to be on the arms control observer group, with luminaries such as Pat Moynihan and Ted Kennedy and John Warner and Sam Nunn, people who worked a lifetime to move towards responsible efforts here. Throughout the years, we watched as the United States and the former Soviet Union engaged in the arms race - tit for tat, each doing something that led the other to feel they had to respond - until we had 50,000 warheads facing each other, until that moment of Reykjavik, when the two Presidents came out and said, "This is insanity; we have to move in a different direction". Ever since then, that is exactly what the world has been doing. We have moved in a different direction. From 50,000 warheads we are now down to about 1,550, and we have proposed to move even further down.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“I want to emphasize that the draft resolution does not impose a legal prohibition on testing, nor does it compel any Government to adopt new reporting requirements. But it does reinforce the core purposes and objectives of the CTBT itself, that is, to diminish our reliance on nuclear devices, to reduce competition among nuclear Powers and to promote responsible disarmament. Next month in Reykjavik, the thirtieth anniversary of the Gorbachev-Reagan meeting will be celebrated and remembered, and I want everybody to think about where we were. I grew up in a world of hiding under my desk in school and being told to take cover and train for the possibility of a nuclear war - none of which would have done any good, as we know.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“The draft resolution (8/2016/800) that we have an opportunity to adopt this morning is a strong and necessary statement of our principles and promises as a global community. It reaffirms the de facto norm - I emphasize, a norm - in the world today against nuclear testing. It acknowledges the legitimate interests of States that fully and faithfully renounce nuclear weapons to receive assurances against the use of the threat of the use of nuclear weapons, and that those assurances will be upheld. It reinforces the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its disarmament goals. It builds support for the international efforts to strengthen verification and monitoring systems. And it encourages nations to make the necessary preparations for the day when the Treaty enters into force.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this meeting. Twenty years ago, President Bill Clinton entered the General Assembly with a pen in hand, the pen that he had used to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the same pen used by President John F. Kennedy decades earlier to bring the Limited Test-Ban Treaty into life. At the time, President Clinton declared the Treaty would be yet another essential step towards a century in which the roles and risks of nuclear weapons could be further reduced and ultimately eliminated. Today, our countries have an opportunity to vote once again to sign onto and to reaffirm the CTBT's promise of a safer, more secure and more peaceful planet.”
2016-09-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7776 (2016) · source
“I urge the Council not to give up, but instead to support the steps outlined by the United States and Russia in Geneva. I call on every party in Syria and those who support them. I call on all members of the opposition to cooperate and revive this plan. I call on every country to cease providing support of any kind to any party that is trying to sabotage this plan. I call on the international community to support United Nations efforts to begin a real negotiation in Geneva on a political transition that can provide the only durable route to peace. I urge the entire international community to get behind the best chance that we have had yet to reduce the Violence, to provide humanitarian assistance and to open up the space for negotiations.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“There are some people who believe that the major parties do not want it done. So, I believe that in order to restore credibility to the process, we must move forward to try to immediately ground all aircraft flying in those key areas in order to de-escalate the situation and give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded. If that happens, there is a chance to give credibility back to this process. In Geneva, Russia related that Al-Assad was prepared to live by the cessation of hostilities and would accept the idea of not flying over agreed-upon areas. But because of what has happened in the past few days, my friends, we have no choice but to try to do that sooner, not later, to move immediately to restore confidence and demonstrate the readiness to implement a genuine ceasefire now. The future of Syria is hanging by a thread.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“But most of the countries one talks to and asks if they would go in to monitor are very quick to say, "not on my life". As my colleagues from the International Syria Support Group will attest, yesterday we had a meeting. There was near unanimity in that room that this process, the ceasefire, as troubled as it is, gives us the best chance available to bring relief to the people of Syria. Now, here is the nub of it. We have said for days that it will take significant and immediate steps now to try to get things back on track. How do we get things back on track? How do we restore the concept ofa ceasefire? How do we give people, who have again and again seen this process fall apart, some sense of confidence in the process? Believe me, there are a lot of people who believe that it cannot happen.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Al-Assad is a spoiler; he does not believe in a ceasefire. Al Nusra and Da'esh are spoilers. They do not want a ceasefire; they want to keep fighting Al-Assad. Therefore, the question for us here today is whether we bend to their will or continue to pursue our agenda, as best we can and in every way that we can, to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Those who believe that the crisis in Syria cannot become even worse are dead wrong, as are those who believe that a military victory is possible. This could be like Carthage and the Romans, if one can call that a victory. The plan announced in Geneva is far from perfect, but I have yet to hear an alternative that is remotely realistic and would lead to a better outcome. If we could get monitoring on the ground, that would be ideal. We would love to have monitoring on the ground.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Under our plan, all of this could be quickly accompanied by serious negotiations between the parties aimed at a political transition and a conclusion to the conflict. So I wish my colleagues to know that the United States remains convinced that the objectives outlined in the Geneva agreement are the right objectives. As for the tools, many of them are the right tools, but they may not be complete. Our hope was that the renewal of the cessation of hostilities and the resumption of aid deliveries, the isolation of Al-Nusra and Da'esh, and the beginning of the Syrian-led negotiation process would provide a pathway out of the conflict and make possible the restoration of a peaceful Syria. Now, clearly there are some people, including Al-Assad and his allies, as well as Al-Nusra and Da'esh on the other side, who fear that very outcome.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“I have said to Russia many times: it is very hard to separate people when they are being bombed indiscriminately. While Al-Assad has the right to determine whom he is going to bomb, because he can "go after Al-Nusra" and in the process go after the opposition at the same time because he wants to, confusion is created that is impossible to separate out, and the ceasefire cannot be preserved. That is why we need to get to the prohibition on flying, my friends. That would prevent Syria from doing what it has done so often in the past, which is to attack civilian targets with the excuse that it is just going after Al-Nusra. Our purpose in the negotiation was to put an end to the kind of horrific and indiscriminate attacks that have been the primary cause of fear, suffering and displacement.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“It also envisioned the possibility - provided that the delivery of humanitarian assistance was unimpeded and sustained and provided that there were at least seven days of consecutive adherence to the cessation of hostilities - that the United States and Russia would begin to coordinate their efforts against Da'esh and Al-Nusra. I wish to make one thing clear. Under President Obama's orders, all preparations were being made in order to achieve that cooperation, involving our military and intelligence community in the work we would do. We are committed to that. It was also a very importantly part of the plan that, when those efforts of cooperation commenced, Syrian warplanes would be prohibited from flying over areas where the legitimate opposition and Al-Nusra were present in order to give us an opportunity to work at separating the two.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Our shared task here is to find a way to use the tools of diplomacy to make that happen. That is exactly what we have been trying to accomplish. For weeks over the summer, experts from my Government worked with our counterparts from Russia in good efforts to develop a plan that would take into account the lessons learned from the original cessation of hostilities. The key elements of that plan, launched in Geneva two weeks ago, include the renewal of the cessation of hostilities, excluding only Da'esh and Al-Nusra. Importantly, it included arrangements for the unfettered delivery - unfettered delivery - of humanitarian aid to people in Aleppo and elsewhere in the country.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“There is only one choice, and that is to get to that table with Staffan de Mistura, to get to a negotiation and get a ceasefire so that we can stop the flow of refugees, stop the suffering, and provide the people of Syria with a chance to breathe, a chance to live. When the ceasefire first began, a few weeks ago, guess what: it worked. Months ago, people were actually out in the streets; they went to cafes again. Some people even demonstrated, felt they had political rights. Other people were able to walk from one place to another with a sense of safety. All of that has dissipated. I want to emphasize this, and I emphasize to Russia that the United States continues to believe that there is a way forward, which, although rocky and difficult and uncertain, can provide the most viable path out of the carnage.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“We cannot look the other way if some groups are on the ground fighting alongside Al-Nusra, an organization that overtly rejects a political solution to this crisis and is an enemy of all of us in this Chamber. It is a moment of truth for the international community, too. If we allow spoilers to choose the path for us, we will encounter a path of escalation. If we decide not to do what it takes to make this cessation of hostilities work, then make no mistake, my friends, the next time we convene here we are going to be facing a Middle East with even more refugees, more dead, more displaced, more extremists and more suffering on an even greater scale. That is a certainty.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“There is a lot more that I am not going to go into because I really want the key here to be an acceptance of responsibility, so that we can change this equation, responsibility on the part of everybody here. The primary question is no longer what do we know; the primary question is, collectively, what are we going to do about it? In other words, this is a moment of truth. It is a moment of truth for President Putin and Russia, it is also a moment of truth for the opposition. It is a moment of truth for the people who support the opposition. For too long some elements of the opposition have relied on an unholy alliance with Al-Nusra. Al-Nusra is Al-Qaida - Al-Qaida's branch in Syria.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Maybe it is an attempt to distract attention or somehow deflect the issue, but I think what it underscores is that we have a responsibility here to find a way forward. Everything I just quoted from Russian sources is contradicted by public information, by conclusions already reached by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, independent journalists and aid workers on the ground, by eyewitnesses. The eyewitnesses will tell you what happened. One of them said that he was standing on the ground, and all of a sudden the place became hell and the fighter jets were in the sky. That is an eyewitness report; the place turned into hell, and fighter jets were in the sky.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Then the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation switched completely and denied Russia's involvement. According to Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, "neither Russia nor Syria conducted air strikes on the United Nations humanitarian convoy in the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo". Then Konashenkov went firrther and said that the damage to the convoy was the direct result of the cargo catching fire, that the trucks and the food and the medicine just spontaneously combusted. Does anybody here believe that? This is not a joke we are involved in. We are in serious business here. If we can stand up and say that we did accidentally have a strike, then we should have some responsibility.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“First, President Putin's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, claimed that the attack on the humanitarian convoy was somehow a necessary response to an alleged offensive by al-Nusra elsewhere in the country: that was the first claim. Then a Russian ambassador said that Russian and Syrian forces were not bombing the area, but that they were targeting the village of Khan Tuman. Then we heard a completely different story: the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation said that the aid convoy had been accompanied by militants in a pick-up truck with a mortar, of which we have, however, seen no evidence. In any case, that would not justify a violation of the cessations of hostilities. In addition, that mortar could never have inflicted the damage caused to those trucks.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“We did not cast out a series of obfuscating facts, instead we said that it was a terrible thing and that it happened. The United States Department of Defence apologized, and we tried to find out how it happened. But people with guns running around on the ground, seen from the air, is a very different thing from trucks in a convoy with big United Nations markings all over them. I want to lay out those facts because they underscore why, at this moment, we just cannot do business as usual. We cannot walk out of this Chamber and say that we are going to try to continue to have a ceasefire, when everybody knows it cannot work. The facts require countries to restore credibility to this process. That is what is critical. Let us think about what happened in the last couple of days.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“That attack has dealt a very heavy blow to our efforts to bring peace to Syria, and it raises a profound doubt about whether Russia and the Al-Assad regime can or will live up to the obligations that they agreed to in Geneva. Questions are also raised - not by that attack but by other events 4 about some of the opposition. Those are facts. The simple reality is that we cannot resolve this crisis if the major parties who come to the table and agree to do something are unwilling to do what is necessary to avoid escalation. We do not get anywhere by ignoring the facts and by denying common sense. The United States-led coalition did hit people on Saturday; it was a terrible accident, and within moments of it happening we acknowledged it.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Last night we received reports of air strikes that hit a medical facility near Aleppo and four aid workers were killed, despite the fact there was supposed to be a cessation of hostilities. There are only two countries that have aeroplanes that are capable of flying during the night - or flying at all - in that particular area: Russia and Syria. As Minister Lavrov said, let us examine the facts and see what happened. On Monday, 20 aid workers were killed in an outrageous sustained two-hour attack directed at a fully authorized humanitarian mission near Aleppo. All of the permits had been given, and everybody was on notice.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“I was privileged to serve in the United States Senate with a fellow who spent a lot of time here: he was the Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He would famously remind us that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts. As President John Adams once said, "facts are stubborn things". If we are going to deal with this situation, I do not think that we can let anybody here have their own set of facts about Syria. Everybody here understands the depth of the human tragedy. One wonders why people in various parts of the world are so angry about governance: it is because all they hear are words. We know how many times we have demanded action, which then does not take place. Therefore, I want to share some facts with you this morning.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“Russia, Iran, the United States, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia - everybody sits here and says that they want a united Syria: secular and respectful of the rights of all people, and where the people of Syria can choose their leadership. However, we are proving woefully inadequate in our ability to get to the table, to have that conversation, to make it happen. Everybody in this Chamber understands that there are proxies at this table and proxies outside of the Chamber - and we know who they are - who have the ability to have an impact on the players in this conflict that has provided the greatest humanitarian catastrophe since the Second World War. Let us review the sequence of events.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“It is something upon which we all agreed in the United Nations and the International Syria Support Group. I have to say with regard to the documents that we are prepared release - as we told people and announced yesterday at the International Syria Support Group, and people in the Support Group have the documents - you do not need to read them to understand that it is against international law to bomb hospitals. You do not need the documents to understand that you do not drop barrel bombs on children. Those are flagrant violations of international law. Therefore, I do not want to obfuscate this process. I did not come here this morning to do that. Supposedly, we all want the same goal - I have heard that again and again.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“And in each place, the International Syria Support Group and the Security Council embraced a ceasefire applicable to all parties. That is not a precondition. That is an international agreement - arrived at four times. Countries have said that they will do this, and four times it has been shredded by independent actors and spoilers who do not want a ceasefire. That is therefore not a precondition. How can people go sit at a table with a regime that bombs hospitals, drops chlorine gas - again and again and again and again and again and again - and acts with impunity? Are you supposed to sit there and have happy talk in Geneva under such circumstances, when you have signed to a ceasefire and do not adhere to it? What kind of credibility do you have with any of your people? It is not a precondition.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“We listened to the young Olympian tell us about her dreams and how she was able to compete this year because ofa refugee Olympic team. We saw the images in a Video beautifully narrated by Bono that really made us think about the consequences of that. I hope that everybody will come here today really focused on those consequences and not engage in word games that duck responsibility or avoid the choices that this great institution has in front of it with respect to war and peace and life and death. I listened to my colleague from Russia, and I felt as though I were in a parallel universe here. He said that nobody should have any preconditions to come to the table. Well, we twice met in Vienna. We met here in New York and embraced a Security Council resolution. We met again in Munich.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“I want to thank my colleague from New Zealand in particular for convening this very important meeting on the crisis in Syria. I believe that it is appropriate that we are gathering here a couple of rooms over from where yesterday so many Heads of State came together in what I thought was a remarkably moving and eloquent statement of the consequence of the war in Syria. I listened particularly to King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein talk about the impact on his country and the millions of people who are distorting its economy, putting huge pressures on the social structure of the country, living under the worst circumstances and, in some areas, presenting a threat because of the ability of Da'esh/ the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham or the Al-Nusra Front to slip people in, posing a security threat to the country.”
2016-09-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7774 (2016) · source
“We could strike a huge blow against violent extremism, not only in Syria but also in Iraq, across the Middle East and around the world. Nothing would be more in keeping with the high purpose for which the Council was created 70 years ago, and nothing would better serve the interests of the people that all of us represent. I hope that we can achieve that.”
2015-09-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7527 (2015) · source