YouSaid · the spoken record

Power

lines on the record: 1,841
first: 2013-08-06
most recent: 2019-07-09
sittings or episodes: 165
sources: un-security-council

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“In the nearly six decades since the signing of the Treaty of Rome, what began as a union predicated mostly on establishing a common market and customs union among six nations has grown into a union ofmore than 500 million people in 28 countries, 19 of them with a common currency, united by a range of shared political and economic institutions. As it has expanded, the EU has used the benefits of its membership to broaden the base of the principles that its countries hold most sacred: pluralism, human rights, diversity and, of course, respect for the territorial integrity of its members. Every member of the Union is a democracy and, not unrelatedly, since the EU's establishment no EU country has raised arms against another. That is a remarkable accomplishment.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“Let me also join others in thanking High Representative Mogherini for making the journey to be with us today, for her briefing and for her consistent leadership in addressing so many of the challenges she described. As President Obama has observed, the European Union (EU) "remains one of the greatest political and economic achievements of modern times". As we all know, the EU, like the United Nations, was created in response to the horrors of the Second World War, and built on the idea that a peaceful, united Europe could provide an antidote to the nationalism that had led to so much bloodshed in the region and around the world.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“I do not want to take much time here, but I am struck by the number of factual claims that have been made by the Ambassador from Syria that impugn the reputation of the United Nations and the brave humanitarians who are trying to get food to people who are being starved - to death, in many cases. I think there is some irony in a Government that pulls infant formula, anaesthetics and surgical equipment off of convoys and that does not even deign to respond to successive United Nations requests, accusing the United Nations of not showing up with convoys when there are people starving. But, I am not the authority on this matter; the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is. As such, I would like to ask Under-Secretary-General O'Brien to respond to some of the allegations made by the Syrian ambassador.”
2016-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7701 (2016) · source
“If we are to forge a more robust United Nations-AU relationship, we should seek more progress on those concrete cases that affect millions of civilian lives in the here and now.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Hundreds of containers of African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur and contingent-owned equipment are languishing in Port Sudan and Darfur regional airports, while attacks against the mission by militia and other armed groups continue. Rather than hosting indicted Sudanese leaders, United Nations and AU member States should be exerting all the influence possible to persuade Khartoum to change course. Even if we could make progress on ensuring more predictable funding for AU missions - something that I think we all agree is a priority issue - it will mean little if we cannot unite behind the delivery offood to peacekeepers who are risking their lives on the front lines.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Without those pressure points, without that leverage, it is hard to imagine the formation of the transitional Government that has occurred. The situation is extremely fragile, and sustaining momentum in the weeks and months ahead will require high-level attention and a continued, unified IGAD, AU, United Nations front. By contrast, sadly, in the Sudan, the members of the Security Council and the PSC have been embarrassingly divided. We have failed even to successfully pressure the Government of the Sudan into permitting the delivery of supplies required by the soldiers and police who make up the beleaguered mission.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Congolese security forces have in the past used repressive tactics, including deadly force, to prevent Congolese citizens from exercising their right to peaceful demonstration. This is a conflict-prevention moment. We know it. We see it. We know from history. We know from the present. It is imperative that we show a united front in calling on President Kabila Kabange to abide by the Constitution and step down when his term ends. Marshalling a unified political front is equally important if conflict does break out. It is the sole way to maintain collective positions and to support meaningful actions. In South Sudan, the United Nations and the AU have supported the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) efforts to pressure both sides.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“The Security Council has often lagged behind the PSC in responding to the crisis. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, five days ago the Government issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Moise Katumbi, soon after he announced he would run for President in elections scheduled for later this year. The Government has said that the elections will likely be postponed and that President Kabila Kabange, who is prohibited by the Constitution from running for a third term, will remain in office until they can be held. Civil society activists have been arrested or detained for protesting peacefully. Opposition leaders are planning nationwide protests for Thursday.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“We have seen those kinds of actions helping fuel conflict that then ends up on both of our respective agendas. Conversely, those States that prioritize investments in accountable and inclusive institutions that deepen the rule of law, that include women in decision-making processes and that otherwise pursue improved governance and more open societies are empirically far less likely to descend into conflict and to eventually threaten regional peace and security. Our partnership must advance those goals, and Member States must be quick and unified in their response when the roots of conflict begin to grow. The situation in Burundi remains deeply perilous, with more than 400 dead and 250,000 refugees to date, the near collapse of the Burundian economy, rampant insecurity and the constant threat of a real spiralling into violence.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“That was something that they had requested of the international community many times. Fourthly, and finally, prevention is the issue on which all of us can agree in the abstract. Who can be against prevention? But where the differences often emerge inside each of our respective Councils is when concrete cases - real countries and real circumstances - emerge. Members of both the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council must get better at dealing with the political drivers of conflict. That can be more politically sensitive for neighbours than it is for countries that are far removed, and we should not dance around that fact. All of us must recognize that it is highly destabilizing when political opponents are attacked, people's rights are violated, elections are highjacked and when Constitutions are ignored.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Thirdly, on capacity-building, improving the operational capacity of the relationship will also require ongoing efforts to build the capabilities of the AU, as envisaged in the African Peace and Security Architecture road map. Greater AU capabilities will translate into the AU delivering more effective peacekeeping missions. The United States has shown its commitment to that effort. We have strengthened AU command and control capabilities, supported multinational exercises for brigades and trained more than 250,000 peacekeepers since 2005. Two years ago, President Obama also established the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership, a major new initiative to build the capacity of key African troop- contributing countries so that they can deploy more rapidly to peacekeeping missions.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“If we are able to make progress, we will need to agree on common approaches to mission mandating and planning processes and on transparency and accountability mechanisms. Those will enable the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) together to monitor and promote strict adherence to international peacekeeping standards, which should include, of course, full respect for human rights norms and a zero-tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse. By demonstrating that peacekeepers who commit abuses will be held to account, we strengthen the legitimacy of peacekeeping where it counts most, that is, with the civilians that peacekeepers are sworn to protect.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“There is a clear need to improve the financial and operational arrangements that undergird AU-fielded, United Nations-authorized peacekeeping missions and that will reflect our shared ownership and responsibilities. We think there can be progress on this long stalled issue. We hope that AU member States will fulfil their commitment to finance 25 per cent of AU peace operations while also developing a fiduciary framework to govern the use of those funds and establishing new approaches to mandating and overseeing those missions with the Security Council to ensure that they are effective and accountable. The proposals being developed by AU High Representative Kaberuka could be important steps in that direction.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“When it comes to discussing how to strengthen the United Nations-AU partnership, there is understandably a great deal of focus on how we can better support the deployment of African-led peace support operations to address urgent threats to peace and security. We know that the United Nations will not always be able or be best positioned to respond to a crisis. While the Security Council continues to be responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, we also know that the AU can be a particularly effective partner in that pursuit, including when it comes to conducting offensive military operations in complex security situations where there is no peace to keep and armed groups threaten the civilian population.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Given that African peacekeepers contribute more than half of the United Nations troops involved in peacekeeping on the African continent, it is both pragmatic and right to seek out African views on mandate formation, political mediation efforts and all the tools we deploy as the Security Council in the service of conflict resolution and conflict prevention. I would note, however, that it would be simplistic to suggest that the African view on any issue is a monolithic one any more than the views inside the Security Council are monolithic. But more communication and more listening to one another, more mutual respect and more supplementing of formal meetings with more informal conversations and brainstorming will make us each and together more effective. Secondly, financing is a hot topic in the Council today.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“I thank Under-Secretary-General Ladsous, Special Envoy Menkerios, Ambassador Kamau and Ambassador Antonio for their briefings today, and I offer a special thanks to Egypt for convening this meeting. I would like to address four key features of the African Union (AU)-United Nations partnership today - mutual respect, financing, capacity-building and prevention. I turn first to mutual respect. Given that more than 80 per cent of United Nations troops are deployed in Africa, we have a great deal to gain from enhanced communication between the AU and the United Nations.”
2016-05-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7694 (2016) · source
“Counter-messaging, social media and an open Internet that enables young people to access such content is how we defeat the narratives and ideologies of ISIL in the modern era. That is the antidote - not restrictions on the media, filters on the Internet or attacks on political opponents. In the development of our common framework and in our approaches based on our individual systems of governance, it is essential that we see political freedom as the enemy of terrorism that it is.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“Endorsing the Secretary-General's Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (A/70/674) when it is raised next month will represent an important step in that direction. In conclusion, I mentioned earlier that ISIL recently called for the murder of 11 imams and scholars in response to their efforts to counter ISIL's messaging. What are they doing that makes them so dangerous to ISIL? They are notjust rejecting the terrorists' perverted views. They are actively promoting alternative ideas and advancing a more positive narrative. They are doing so not only through the older tools that traditional social-media platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook offer, they are discussing religion over SnapChat.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“She was stopped only after her grandparents intervened. Recalling the gifts and attention that her new online contacts lavished upon her, she told a reporter later, "I felt like I was betraying God and Christianity, but I also felt excited because I had made a lot of new friends". An imam in central Mali recently told a researcher from Human Rights Watch that an extremist group's local appeal had nothing to do with religion but simply that, in a region where the Government is unable to provide security or basic social services, "the jihadists provide a better alternative to the State". Identifying those dynamics enables us to seek to address them, and the strategy that we develop today to combat terrorist narratives must be grounded in broader efforts to counter and prevent violent extremism.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“It also banned satellite dishes and receivers, railing against what it called "the news channels that spread false lies and defamation". ISIL is right that the Internet and free media threaten its adherents. It is critically important that no State Member of the United Nations follow its lead and adopt the same View. That brings me to the third principle that should undergird our approach. We have to better understand the factors that draw some people or communities to terrorist narratives, so that we can better spot them and counter them. The motivation of those who become radicalized is extremely varied. To give one example, after extensive online conversations, one lonely 23-year-old Sunday-school teacher and babysitter in Washington State was prepared to marry a stranger and move to Syria.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“By contrast, arresting journalists, sentencing reporters to death and treating the media as an enemy of the State - such actions are thoroughly counterproductive. The media are an ally when it comes to showing the truth about terrorists groups. Attacking the media will not produce a more compliant citizenry; instead, it will produce a more alienated, suspicious and disenfranchised public, one more likely to chafe under a Government's attempts at control - all to the benefit of terrorist groups. It is telling that one authority that recently sought to curtail the flow of information to the people under its control is ISIL itself. Last year, it banned private Internet access in Raqqa in an attempt to prevent disaffected fighters from reaching their families and to stop locals from telling the outside world about life under ISIL rule.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“Such openness expands public access to the truth, and in this battle, the truth is clearly on our side. We have nothing to be afraid of. The Internet itself is not a threat, though it can host ISIL lies and propaganda. It also makes possible the flow of counter- narratives, the exchange of new ideas and the voices of tolerance, which vastly outnumber the exceptions. A free press might criticize its Government - certainly the free press in my country does that - but that is precisely what makes those voices credible and ensures that they are seen as independent by the public. A reputation for impartiality and reliability is what makes their reporting on the atrocities and perversions of ISIL and others so powerfully important.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“Independent voices can spread the truth about what life is really like under ISIL control. Religious leaders can reject ISIL's perverse distortions of faith by spreading Islam's message of peace, love and tolerance. ISIL clearly fears this threat. Just this part weekend, the group called for the murder of 11 imams and scholars living in the United States and elsewhere who have actively worked to rebut its narratives and discredit its ideology. Governments can play a supporting role by convening and amplifying independent voices, as the United States has done in partnership with the United Arab Emirates in the establishment of the Sawab Centre, which has provided training to civil society organizations and other groups. Secondly, an effective strategy will facilitate the free flow of information.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“But there is a clear and vast difference between responding to those legally prescribed exceptions and broad-based attempts to silence Government critics. Legal action is a critical tool in the campaign against ISIL, but it must not be wielded like a cudgel against those who voice unpopular speech or criticize authorities. Such behaviour does not prevent violent extremism, it fuels it. I would offer three principles upon which to ground our common strategy to counter the poisonous ideologies and narratives propagated by groups like ISIL. First, such a strategy should focus on exposing the lies, distortions and falsehoods that underpin terrorist narratives. The most influential and effective actors in this effort will always be religious leaders, civil society organizations, community groups and individual citizens.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“One of their mothers lamented what had happened to her boy, saying, "I told him to never even mention those names, Al-Shabaab or ISIL, because the Koran says nothing about the reasons to kill anyone in the ways ISIL talks about." Six other Americans pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year. Some of them told the judge that they had been inspired by ISIL recruitment videos and social media. As we consider the task of countering violent ideologies, we all must recognize that the common goal of countering terrorist ideologies should never be used as an excuse to suppress political dissent. Many countries recognize narrow, clearly delineated exceptions to the right of the freedom of expression, such as incitement to imminent violence, which is an exception to that right in the United States.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“She feels shame, while those who enslaved her appear incapable of shame. An 23-year-old boy told me that he was studying at his madrasa when Boko Haram began shooting. He fled alone into the bush and has not seen his parents since. He does not know if they are alive. Such horrors inject acute urgency into this meeting as the Council seeks to strengthen its collective effort to defeat ISIL, Al-Qaida and terrorist groups like them. There could be no more urgent cause on Earth. None of us are immune to the threat posed by those groups. In Minneapolis on Monday, three young American men went on trial charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIL and to commit murder abroad.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“One woman I spoke with had seen her husband executed and had her three children ripped from her grip and taken by Boko Haram. Now alone, displaced, she does not know why she is still alive. As she says, her life no longer has meaning. She just sits around all day, every day, and pines for her children and wonders if there is more that she can do to somehow bring them back. I met a 14-year-old girl who described having been given a "choice" by the terrorists who had burned down her home: be killed or become a Boko Haram bride. She chose life, and after a year of sexual enslavement by Boko Haram, she managed somehow to escape her monstrous captor. But now in a refugee camp, she blames herself for the stigma that she carries with her from the time that she spent with Boko Haram.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“I thank Deputy Secretary-General Eliasson, Secretary-General Afifi and Deputy General Counsel Crown for taking the time to briefus today on this very important topic. I also want to single out Egypt for thanks, and Mr. Selim specifically, for calling this meeting. I would also like to offer my sympathies on behalf of the American people to you, Mr. President, and the people of Egypt for the despicable attack that occurred in Cairo on Sunday, which killed eight police officers. That ambush underscores the continuing, deadly, inhuman threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Da'esh) and, of course, by groups that adopt similar tactics. On a visit to Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria last month, I met with some of the countless victims of Boko Haram, which recently pledged allegiance to Da'esh.”
2016-05-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7690 (2016) · source
“All of us here must work relentlessly to restore and maintain the respite from violence, for which Syrians yearn and which they deserve, to ensure that they receive vital humanitarian aid to survive - many are on death's door right now as we sit here - and to build the political solution, which is the only escape from the daily inferno.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“Osama Abo El Ezz, wrote in the New York Times of losing so many of his close friends who were medical professionals over the last five years. Over the past week, he wrote, "The bombardment has reached such ferocity that even the stones are catching fire". Of the cessation of hostilities, he wrote, "Imperfect though it was, it offered Syrian civilians a brief respite from five years of violence. People had begun to recover during the truce, to get their lives back." He continued to recount that now, people in Aleppo are waiting for death and even praying for it in some instances to take them away from "this burning city", as he put it.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“The party primarily responsible for the burning in Aleppo is a United Nations Member State. That should revolt us. The party is a United Nations Member State indifferent and cold to the ghastly suffering of its people. That should galvanize and unite us. All those with influence, particularly Russia and Iran, must press the regime to meet its commitments and obligations. For our part, the United States will continue pressing the opposition to do the same. We will work with our Russian counterparts to try to restore a real and lasting cessation of hostilities in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria and facilitate a political transition away from Al-Assad - the only way in which this war will finally end. The entire ISSG is going to have to be a part of making that happen. Today, a Syrian surgeon in Aleppo, Dr.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“There is plenty of blame to go around for the worsening situation in Aleppo, but there can be no doubt about where the primary responsibility lies. It lies with the same regime that is responsible for committing similar offenses throughout the country: the one that has laid siege to 15 cities throughout Syria and restricted access to aid for millions of Syrians, leading to the preventable deaths of countless civilians; the one responsible for 12 ofthe 13 attacks on medical facilities, recorded from January through March by Physicians for Human Rights, and 24 of the 25 deaths that resulted from those strikes; the regime responsible for last week's air strikes against a Syrian civil-defence station in the town of Al-Atareb in Aleppo Province, which killed five brave men who volunteered to serve their communities as first-responders: Ahmad Abdullah, Khaled Bashar, Ahmad Mahmoud, Hamdo Haj Ibrahim and Hussain Ismail - the most recent casualties among the more than 115 white helmets, who have died in the line of duty since the war began; and the same party and the same regime responsible for the vast majority of the 400,000 deaths - and counting - in the conflict.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“After five years of war, it should be abundantly clear that the conflict will be settled only through political dialogue. Aleppo is a living monument to the belief that military force can achieve something for the people of Syria. The need for a political solution is precisely what the Council agreed in December 2015 when we adopted resolution 2254 (2015). Yet we have seen one party in particular renege on its commitments to a full cessation ofhostilities nation-wide and to the full, rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, blatantly disregarding resolution 2254 (2015). That undermines the conditions needed for negotiations and makes finding common ground and forging compromises exceedingly difficult. Let me conclude.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“Just yesterday, the Council adopted resolution 2286 (2016) on, inter alia, the importance of the protection of medical personnel and the importance of access to medical care in armed conflict. Every member of the Council voted in favour, and it is now time to call for its implementation in a real context - the context of Syria. And that means urgently pressing the regime and any group that would shell a hospital to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law and cease targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and medical personnel. That brings me to the third and final element necessary for progress towards the conflict's resolution: political negotiations aimed at political transition.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“He was a man who had sent his family to safety in Turkey, while he stayed behind to treat his patients. He was a man so committed to his people that he often slept in the hospital in case a child needed emergency help during the night. According to Physicians for Human Rights, the attack that killed that great doctor along with so many others was actually the third strike on the hospital since the war began. That is not an accident. Ifyou hit a hospital once by mistake, you can adjust your targeting and make allowances, but that was wilful targeting. At least six medical facilities throughout Aleppo were attacked during the past week, and the most recent attack, as we have heard, was yesterday against the Dabbit maternity clinic in regime-held territory where more civilians were killed. All of those attacks are reprehensible.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“Just to give one example, on a recent convoy to Rastan, the authorities even went so far as to remove the scissors and anaesthetics from midwifery kits. Who does that? Let us be honest. The people who do that are people who do not give a damn what the Council prescribes. They do not care. They have stopped listening. At the same time, the regime has deliberately targeted first-responders, health-care workers and medical facilities. Of the 33 hospitals open in Aleppo in 2010, fewer than 10 are reportedly functioning today. The most recent example, as we all know, was the loss of the Al-Quds hospital, which suffered a horrific attack that killed at least 50 civilians, including the city's last pediatrician, Dr. Muhammad Waseem Moaz, a man described by a colleague as the loveliest doctor in their hospital.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“Though the Council should need no reminder, resolution 2254 (2015) calls for rapid, safe and unhindered access throughout the country. Aleppo is a place of huge need right now. We often focus in our remarks on those who have been killed, but think of all of those who have been injured and are in desperate need of help. Resolution 2254 (2015) proscribes the removal of medicines and medical supplies from aid conveys, but, again, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented that that is a routine practice throughout Syria. It is the exception when medical supplies are actually allowed through on convoys. It is a rule, and a rule that is enforced across the board by the Syrian Government's bureaucracy, to remove medical supplies from convoys.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“But the regime has also taken additional measures that show its overt intent to ratchet up civilian suffering in Aleppo. The Syrian Government has restricted humanitarian access and blocked aid, thereby undercutting that second element necessary for a peaceful resolution to be advanced. The International Syria Support Group (ISSG) has just been informed, as Under-Secretary-General O'Brien has just confirmed here today, that the regime has approved only eight deliveries for 25 per cent of people in the United Nations May delivery plan for besieged and hard-to-reach areas, and the Syrian Government did not approve any of the Aleppo locations in the United Nations May plan. Is that a coincidence or is it simply in keeping with the regime's massive offensive designed to terrorize the people of Aleppo?”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“Yet every day the photos and videos out of Aleppo show that that distinction has been obliterated. It is important to note that violence by the Al-Nusra Front or Da'esh is violence by groups that are not a party to the cessation and are not protected by the cessation of hostilities. The rest of the opposition that signed up for the cessation and abided by it cannot be held responsible for the actions of terrorists who have made no secret of their desire to keep fighting. Nobody benefits more from this war, and from the failure to reach a political solution and a political transition, than the terrorists. However, one cannot lump the like with the unlike, the innocent with the guilty. These attacks have imposed an incalculable toll on Aleppo's civilians, and they contribute to a devastating humanitarian situation in the city.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“The regime and some of its supporters sometimes claim to be attacking the Al-Nusra Front or Da'esh, but the sites hit in Aleppo show otherwise. Consider this list of targets struck by the regime or its allies between 20 and 29 April - not ancient history, but rather a matter of the past couple of weeks. This list of targets was provided by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which has proved highly reliable during the conflict: an ambulance in the Bab Al-Nairab neighbourhood, a public market in the district of Al-Sakhour, a civil defence centre in Al-Atarib, a bakery in Al-Ameriyeh, a school in the Bab Al-Hadid district and a mosque in the Al-Sukkari district. The distinction between civilians and military personnel and targets has to be respected in accordance with international law.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“The regime launched more than 300 air strikes, 110 artillery strikes and 18 missiles, and dropped more than 68 bombs on the city over just these past two weeks, according to credible actors on the ground. All of that while still paying lip service to a cessation of hostilities. Against that backdrop, the United States has been working urgently with Special Envoy De Mistura and with the Russian Federation to reaffirm the cessation across the country. Through those efforts, the parties to the cessation agreed to recommit to the truce in Aleppo and its suburbs earlier today. The city has been calmer, and we urge all parties to comply fully so that hostilities actually cease - not just in Aleppo but across the country.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“All three tracks are interlinked and interdependent and we cannot, as some have argued, neglect any one of them and expect the other two to succeed. In recent days, as evidenced most clearly by what has occurred in Aleppo, all three of those tracks are in grave peril. First, as others have noted, across much of Aleppo, the cessation of hostilities has given way to horrific violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 270 civilians were killed in Aleppo just since 22 April. While all sides have contributed to the violence, the military escalation was attributable largely to the actions of a single party - the Al-Assad regime.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“To save Aleppo - what is left ofAleppo - we need progress on the same three fronts needed for peace in Syria overall. It is not that complicated. As Special Envoy De Mistura previously underscored, the three elements are stopping the fighting, improving humanitarian access and engaging in political negotiations to bring about transition. This year has actually shown that all three are possible - however belatedly, unevenly and imperfectly implemented - when there is political will. The cessation of hostilities has, up to this point, saved lives. Humanitarian access, while still grotesquely restricted, has improved modestly. And Special Envoy de Mistura has convened the parties for talks in Geneva.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“A city does not become one of the world's oldest without surviving great challenges. Aleppo has endured wars, occupations and earthquakes. In 1260 it survived a siege by the Mongols. After so many centuries, a city like this might seem able to survive anything. But in recent days, young Syrians have spread a slogan across social media: "Aleppo is burning". After five years of war, the recent explosion of violence has threatened what remains of the city. Just today, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Mr. Staffan de Mistura, warned that continued violence could be catastrophic and that it could force 400,000 more residents to flee. Imagine the ripple effect and the consequences of that additional displacement.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“I thank Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, and Mr. Stephen O'Brien, Under- Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. I would also like to thank the United Kingdom for calling today's important meeting. The city known today as Aleppo has been continuously inhabited for more than 7,000 years. Over the centuries, it has been won and lost by a succession of empires * the Greeks, the Romans, crusaders, the Ottomans and more. It has been home to diverse populations of traders and merchants, which included Muslims, Jews and Christians. That is not ancient history. Those influences have long been visible in the city's architecture, tasted in its food and felt in its culture. By the sixteenth century, it was famous enough for Shakespeare to cite it in Othello and Macbeth.”
2016-05-04 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7687 (2016) · source
“The Security Council must respond swiftly and proactively in any situation in which a Government requires the staff from a United Nations peacekeeping mission immediately to depart. Our goal has been and remains securing a return to the full functionality of the MINURSO mission as soon as possible so that it can fulfil the mandate given to it by the Council. We consider the civilian component, including the political reporting function, to be a crucial part of that mandate. Resolution 2285 (2016) provides an important signal from the Council and a realistic path to achieving that necessary return to full functionality.”
2016-04-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7684 (2016) · source
“To that end, it is critically important that continued engagement between Morocco and the United Nations leads to resolving the challenges facing MINURSO and to restoring MINURSO to full functionality. The policy of the United States regarding Western Sahara has not changed. We consider Morocco's autonomy plan serious, realistic and credible. It represents a potential approach that could satisfy the self-determination aspirations of the people of Western Sahara. At the same time, the United States believes that we - and by "we" I mean not only our Government but also the Security Council - have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the mandates that we authorize and to ensure the effectiveness and safety of peacekeeping personnel worldwide, including those serving in MINURSO.”
2016-04-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7684 (2016) · source
“That is an understatement. It is taking place against a backdrop of significant uncertainty for the Mission, with the removal of civilian staff, including the Mission's political component, rendering MINURSO incapable of fully functioning and fulfilling its mandate. Civilian staff provide essential support of the Mission's operations. Under- Secretary-General Ladsous has made abundantly clear that the current conditions in which MINURSO is striving to do its job are unsustainable. It is important that Morocco and the United Nations have a constructive relationship. In fact, it is absolutely necessary if the United Nations-led process, which we all support, is to bring about a peaceful, sustainable and mutually agreed solution to the conflict in Western Sahara.”
2016-04-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7684 (2016) · source
“The United States supports the Security Council's adoption of the resolution 2285 (2016), which renews for another year the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). MINURSO plays an indispensable role in preserving and ensuring safety and security in Western Sahara and must continue to do so until a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara is achieved. We thank members of the Security Council and those in the Group of Friends of Western Sahara for their support in concluding the negotiations on the MINURSO mandate renewal and adopting the resolution today in advance of the mandate's expiration tomorrow. As we all know, this year's mandate renewal was challenging and contentious.”
2016-04-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7684 (2016) · source
“Together with the Normandy format leaders, the United States will continue to press for their full implementation by all parties, just as we will keep sanctions in place for as long as Russia continues to obstruct their implementation. And we will maintain our Crimea sanctions until Russia ends its occupation of the peninsula.”
2016-04-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7683 (2016) · source