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

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

“Russia and the separatists it supports should fulfil the commitments they made in September, rather than attempt to reopen negotiations while increasing the level of violence and attacks to change the facts on the ground. We need more facts, less fantasy. We need more implementation of Minsk, not more distractions from it.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“The representative of the Russian Federation claims that Ukraine will not respond to President Putin's latest proposal. In fact, there is no need to renegotiate a new peace plan or a new ceasefire line. The September Minsk agreements, which provide for a cessation of fighting, permanent international monitoring of the border, the removal of all Russian equipment and personnel from the Ukrainian territory, the release of all hostages, and increased autonomy for the region within Ukrainian law, remain the best path to de-escalating the conflict. What the Russians seem to be doing is not to implement Minsk, but to redraft the line of control articulated in it.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“The line should not be renegotiated because the separatists have gained additional territory through repeated ceasefire violations since September. It has been claimed that the Donetsk airport, under the Minsk agreements, should be under the control of the Russian-backed separatists. In fact, according to the 19 September Minsk agreement, the line of contact should go straight through the Donetsk airport and the agreement stipulated that all forces would draw back at least 15 kilometers on both sides of the ceasefire line. The airport would have remained neutral territory had the Minsk agreements been properly implemented. The 19 September agreement laid out specific coordinates. There should be no confusion that cannot be resolved with a GPS.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Weapons, heavy artillery and military personnel continue to flow across the border from Russia to the separatists. The border remains unsecured and hostages are still being held, including on Russian territory. Meanwhile, Ukraine has taken great strides to implement the provisions of the 5 September Minsk protocol, including twice declaring a unilateral ceasefire as separatists continued to fire. It has been claimed that Ukraine is building up its military presence and resorting to militarization. In fact, Ukraine is attempting to hold the ceasefire line agreed to on 19 September. The fact that the Russian-backed separatists have decided to ignore the line and try to take additional territory does not provide a basis to renegotiate that line.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“I certainly understand the desire of the representative of the Russian Federation to speak about other conflicts and other crises, rather than the situation and their tactics of continuing to support the separatists who are wreaking havoc in Ukraine. It seems that while Russia continues the same tactics of supporting the separatists in Ukraine, it also continues its same tactics in the Council - distracting and demonstrating a repeated preference for fantasy over fact. So let us be clear. It has been claimed that the Russian Federation is striving for implementation of the Minsk agreements. In fact, Russia and the separatists it supports have taken practically no steps to implement the September Minsk agreements. For example, attacks are continuing past the agreed ceasefire line.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“In sum, all of the problems that the United Nations, and the Security Council in particular, were created to address, are frozen. If Russia succeeds in achieving its aims, if we allow this behaviour to become the new normal, this will not be the last time Russia uses this well-worn playbook.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“The end-game in all ofthose Moscow-manufactured crises has been identical: to gobble up parts of neighbouring countries and to create frozen conflicts. And Russia is consistently working to put those frozen conflicts under a deeper freeze. In recent weeks, for example, at the same time that Russia was flouting its Minsk agreements, President Putin was putting the finishing touches on another set of agreements, the so-called "treaties of alliance", with de facto authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Those treaties will compound years of violations of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. What is frozen in these conflicts? Instability is frozen. Violations of sovereignty are frozen. Militarization is frozen.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“We are concerned by the European Council's report on abuse in Ukrainian prisons, and we urge the Government to conduct thorough, impartial investigations into its findings, as well as to develop a plan to address them. We take seriously reports of the alleged use of cluster munitions in populated areas. All sides should take every feasible precaution to prevent any loss of civilian life, including by indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas. There is a broader reason it would be dangerous to accept Russia's actions as the new normal. We have seen this playbook before. Before eastern Ukraine we saw it in Crimea, and before Crimea we saw it in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and before that in Georgia and Transnistria.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“In contrast to Russia, Ukraine has consistently taken steps to de-escalate the crisis, demonstrating measurable progress on several key commitments made in Minsk and passing key reforms to reduce corruption and grant greater authority to its regions. In September and December, President Mr. Poroshenko announced unilateral ceasefires on the part of Ukrainian forces, resulting in brief but significant decreases in violence. Yet peace cannot be made unilaterally. Where Ukraine has been forced to respond to cynical attempts by the separatists and Russian forces to use the ceasefires to gain additional territory, the Ukrainian forces have tried to hold the agreed line. Of course, the Ukrainian Government must abide by international norms, even as it defends its land and its people.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“We need to implement the peace plans we already have - peace plans Russia has signed and broken. If Russia is serious about peace, it should follow through on Minsk, to which it had agreed more than four months ago. If Russia wants to end the conflict, the steps they must take are the same as they were on 5 September 2014: remove all military equipment and personnel from Ukraine; stop backing the separatists; allow unimpeded OSCE monitoring; return control of Ukraine's international border to the Ukrainian Government and release all hostages, including those being held in Russia, such as Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko. We understand Ms. Savchenko has been on hunger strike for nearly a month to protest her detention and is suffering serious health problems. Yet Russia has taken none of the steps set out in Minsk.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“On Thursday, President Putin issued a last-minute invitation to President Poroshenko to discuss a new Russian-conceived so-called peace plan - a plan that would free Russia from the commitment it made in Minsk to withdraw its fighters and return control over the international border to Ukraine. The plan would seek to legitimize territorial gains made by separatists since September, as well as Russian personnel and military equipment on the territory of Ukraine. We have seen peace plans like that before in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. When President Poroshenko did not accept Putin's offer, Russia immediately launched a diplomatic and media blitz, claiming it was proof that Ukraine was not interested in peace. Let us pull the veil away from Putin's peace plan and call it for what it is: a Russian occupation plan.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“For every attack on civilians that makes headlines, there are dozens more, no less deadly, that go unreported. Since the conflict began, more than 10,000 people have been injured in the conflict. Nearly 5,000 people have been killed, approximately 800 of them since November when the Council last met to discuss the Ukraine crisis (see S/PV.7311). One of the attacks that did not make news occurred on 11 January. According to the SMM, mortars struck two houses in the Government- held town of Hranitne, wounding a girl. She died of her injuries before she reached the hospital - she was three years old. Those are some of the reasons why the Russians' most recent efforts to blame Ukraine ring so hollow.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“In the SMM's assessment, all craters examined were caused by rockets fired from a north-north-eastern direction." The conclusion of the impartial OSCE monitoring mission is that the craters at the crime scene were caused by rockets fired from the north-north-east direction from the checkpoint. That area is controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and multiple open- source reports have shown separatists firing Grad rockets from the territory to the north-north-east of Volnovakha. The same day the bus was struck, the SMM reported hearing Grad rockets fired from several other separatist-controlled areas. At first, separatists bragged on social media about the strike on the Ukrainian security checkpoint. Vut the postings disappeared after it was reported that a busload of civilians had been hit.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Many of us have seen the ghastly images of the 13 January attack on a passenger bus, which was struck while waiting at a Ukrainian security checkpoint at Volnovakha. Indelible images of the blood-soaked snow alongside the bus, of its blown-out windows and the gapping holes left in its seats and curtains, of the gory steps to the back entrance of the bus - these images are unforgettable. Thirteen civilians were killed in that attack and at least 16 more people were wounded. The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission said in a 17 January report that it had "conducted a comprehensive inspection, focusing on five craters caused by explosions that had occurred during the incident. The investigation included comprehensive crater analysis of two specific blast craters, including the crater located 10 metres from the side of the passenger bus.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Ukraine and the international community have launched several serious efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict, including through the trilateral contact Group on Ukraine, the Minsk agreement, the Normandy group and other negotiating forums. We continue to believe that there can be no military solution and that political negotiations are key. Yet, time and again, Russia's words promise peace while Russia's actions make war. Time and again, President Putin has extended an olive branch in one hand while passing out Grad missiles and tanks with the other. The current situation is dangerous. It is dangerous because Russia's actions are directly contributing to a humanitarian crisis. With each passing day, more civilians are killed and maimed.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“It is dangerous because separatists continue to harass, threaten and intimidate the impartial monitors deployed by the OSCE, - monitors who serve on behalf of the international community. According to a 14 January OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine report, the SMM. was stopped at a separatist checkpoint in Oktyabr by a hostile separatist commander who ordered the team's car searched and said the monitors would be shot if a camera was found, even though cameras are a basic tool of documentation work. Separatist guards kept their guns pointed at the monitors during the exchange, the monitors said, even though the team posed no threat and, mercifully, had no camera. The current situation is dangerous. It is dangerous because Russia continues to break commitments it has made to the escalades.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“The OSCE is allowed to operate at only two checkpoints on the vast Ukrainian-Russian border. Yet from those two checkpoints alone, monitors note hundreds of individuals in military-style dress freely crossing the border every week. The separatists have a larger fighting force, with more weaponry than some European countries. Meanwhile, Russia is reportedly preparing to deliver its twelfth resupply convoy to separatists in Ukrainian territory at the end of the month. If the past 11 deliveries are any indication, Russia will deny international monitors or Ukrainian authorities the ability to fully inspect the convoys. If Russia is indeed sending humanitarian aid, what does it have to hide? The current situation is dangerous.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Thankfully, there were no casualties, but now the city must rely on northern access via Donetsk, effectively isolating it and leaving it vulnerable to separatist attacks. These moves appear calculated and strategic in nature. Since President Poroshenko announced the unilateral silence regime on 9 December, which brought about a brief respite from the violence, separatists and the Russians who backed them have carried out more than 1,000 attacks against Ukrainian positions. Since late December Russia has transferred at least 100 additional pieces of Russian military equipment and materiel to separatists. These latest transfers come atop previous transfers of hundreds of pieces of Russian military equipment to separatists since September, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, heavy artillery pieces and other military vehicles.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Even as we sit here today, the separatists trained, supplied and supported by Russia are launching a full-scale attack on the strategic city of Debaltseve, inside Ukrainian-controlled territory, in blatant violation of the 19 September Minsk ceasefire lines, in an attemp to gain control of a significant rail juncture. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported yesterday that at least 30 Grad rockets had hit the city on 19 January, killing 3 civilians and wounding 12. The OSCE confirmed that those rockets had come from the direction of the separatist-controlled city of Horlivka. Yesterday, independent media reported that separatists had blown up a rail bridge connecting the port city of Mariupol to the rest of Ukraine.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“Indeed, Russia has so consistently broken its commitments and violated its obligations not to lop off part of another country that some in the Council may begin to accept Russia's behaviour as an unfortunate but inevitable reality, a new normal that would be dangerous for Ukraine and dangerous for international peace and security, because complacency would reward aggression and threaten the basic rules on which our collective security rests. The current situation is dangerous. It is dangerous because Russia continues to train and equip separatists with heavy weapons and to fight by their side, in flagrant violation of the September Minsk agreement, Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for convening today's meeting on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. We are grateful for Under- Secretary-General Feltman's unflagging attention to this alarming situation and for the alarm he sounded in the Security Council today in very explicit terms. As this is the Council's first meeting on Ukraine in 2015, it is our twenty-eighth meeting on the crisis in the past 11 months, far more than on any other situation during the same period. We keep meeting on Ukraine because, despite countless commitments made to the international community to de-escalate - here in the Council and in Geneva, Minsk, Berlin, Normandy and elsewhere - Russia continues to choose a path of escalation and obfuscation. In addition to occupying Crimea, Russia continues to train, equip and fight alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine.”
2015-01-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7365 (2015) · source
“King spoke of men without work, families living in miserable conditions, children denied access to a quality education; and he spoke ofhow such inequality posed an enduring obstacle to American prosperity, calling on all Americans to bridge these gaps. It has been nearly 50 years since Dr. King spoke of the need to address these gaps in the United States, and yet so many of them persist, here in the United States and around the world. His call to action is as resonant and urgent today as when he first made it. We must do everything in our power to do our part to fulfil it.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“All of these investments, all of this progress, not only make women more equal partners in Afghanistan's future, they give Afghanistan far brighter prospects for a more secure and prosperous future. Today, as has been said, we commemorate the life of another Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the world's greatest human rights champions, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In one of his last speeches, Dr. King spoke of what he called "the other America" - a country he contrasted with the America of opportunity and equality. The other America, he said, had a "daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair". Dr.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“If we can achieve this goal through reducing corruption, promoting universal, free and legal identity and ensuring public access to information, we can ensure that the next United Nations development agenda will help empower those who need it most. That is why in Afghanistan we have invested robustly in ensuring that women and girls are more fully integrated into Afghan society. Since 2001, school enrolment there has increased tenfold, with nearly 10 million children now signed up, 40 per cent of whom are girls. Maternal mortality has fallen from 16 per cent to 3 per cent. And today, women hold 28 per cent of the Afghan Parliament seats, a higher proportion than in my own country.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“That is why we have invested so much time in the post-2015 development agenda, which aims for inclusive and equitable development that leaves no one behind in any country, developing or developed, and not only in terms of gender equality and global health, but across other areas such as education, water and sanitation, sustainable energy, and inclusive and responsive governance. That is why the United States has strongly advocated draft goal 16, which focuses on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies, providing access to justice for all and building accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“That is why, in addition to investing unprecedented resources - including the efforts of more than 3,000 American engineers, epidemiologists, doctors and others on the ground, mainly in Liberia - in stopping the Ebola outbreak at its source and in leaving the affected countries with stronger public health systems than they had before the outbreak, President Obama has launched the Global Health Security Agenda. The Global Health Security Agenda is aimed at preparing countries to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to outbreaks before they become epidemics. During a meeting with President Obama last September, 43 countries joined us in annoucing more than 100 specific commitments to strengthen global health security, together with the World Health Organization and other international institutions.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“The activism of women helped build grass-roots pressure on then President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, to engage in peace talks with rebels. When those talks faltered, she and 200 women formed a human chain to prevent the Government and the rebels from leaving the negotiating table. Of course the Government and the rebels could have pushed their way through that chain, but the symbolic demand of those women for peace, together with international pressure, helped keep both sides at the negotiating table, and within weeks they reached a deal. If we agree that international peace and security is bound up with inclusive development, it follows that one of the best ways for the international community to consolidate peace and to help end conflict is to bridge enduring development gaps.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“These figures show what should be clear to all: the economic and social health of countries is intrinsically linked to their ability to secure and maintain peace. More than 80 per cent of extremely poor people * those who survive on less $1 a day - are expected to live in countries affected by conflict and chronic violence by 2025. We know that this is not a challenge we can ignore. We have to do something more. One place to start is with women and girls. Leymah's story is testament to the critical role that women can play in advancing peace and security. In the middle of the second brutal civil war in Liberia, she rallied thousands of women to pray for peace and founded a group that staged weeks-long non-violent protests calling for an end to the conflict.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“As President Obama observed in his remarks before the General Assembly in September, violent extremist groups have found their most fertile recruiting grounds "in the Middle East and North Africa, where a quarter of young people have no job, where food and water could grow scarce, where corruption is rampant and sectarian conflicts have become increasingly hard to contain." (A/69/PV6, pp. 12-13). The connection between development and peace and security extends beyond Ebola and violent extremism. The average civil war sets back a medium- sized developing country more than 30 years in terms of economic growth. Trade levels after major violence take an average of 20 years to recover. And the global economic impact of stemming such violence is estimated at $9.5 trillion, or approximately 11 per cent of the gross world product.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“While neither represents the kind of risk that may have been imagined by the architects of the United Nations, each threatens the stability and prosperity of multiple countries. And both highlight the way that underdevelopment can pose a risk to peace and security. One of the main reasons that Ebola spread as quickly as it did in West Africa and has killed such a high proportion of the people that it has infected is the acute underdevelopment of the public health systems in the affected countries.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“I thank you, President Bachelet, for presiding over this critically important meeting and for Chile's leadership on these issues and many others in the Council and around the world. I thank you as well for your lifelong efforts, including during your tenure here as Director of UN-Women and as Chilean President, to advance the causes of development and peace. I also thank Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee. We can all see why she has made the difference that she has in Liberia and well beyond. She is truly formidable. And I thank the Secretary-General and Ambassador Patriota for their very important contributions. As threats to international peace and security have evolved, so has the Council's conception of them. Consider two of the great crises we face today: the Ebola epidemic and violent extremism.”
2015-01-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7361 (2015) · source
“All sides must work together to accelerate efforts and increase support for rebuilding through the Gaza reconstruction mechanism. The humanitarian needs are considerable, particularly in the harsh winter months. In December, the United States announced an initial $100 million contribution to the 2015 needs of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, including in Gaza. We encourage other States to make pledges and to promptly deliver the funds that they have already promised to fully meet those urgent needs.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“The Quartet envoys will meet at the end of this month to discuss the way ahead. We continue to oppose unilateral actions by both sides that we view as detrimental to the cause of peace. Palestinian efforts to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and to accede to a number of international treaties are counter-productive and will not advance the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a sovereign and independent State. We urge both parties to exercise maximum restraint and avoid steps that threaten to push Israeli-Palestinian relations into a cycle of further escalation. As we continue to work towards Israeli-Palestinian peace, we share the deep concern of the United Nations regarding the situation in Gaza.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“We remain committed to achieving the peace that both Palestinians and Israelis deserve: two States for two peoples, with a sovereign, viable and independent Palestine, living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel. As the Council is aware, on 30 December (see S/PV.7354) the United States voted against a Security Council draft resolution (S/2014/916). We made our position clear. The draft resolution, which was hastily put to a vote, would have taken us farther from and not closer to an atmosphere that makes it possible to achieve two States for two peoples. Since that vote, the United States, represented in particular by Secretary Kerry, has reached out to both parties in an effort to try to reduce tensions and find a path forward.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“Yet if the attackers' aim was to divide Lebanon, they failed. A full range of Sunni, Shia and Christian Lebanese leaders firmly the condemned the attack as did a broad swathe of Lebanese society, who rallied behind the Lebanese armed forces in pursuing those responsible. The Lebanese people also vigorously condemned the attack. In the days following it, the Twitter hash- tag #JesuisJabalMohsen was a top-trending tweet in Lebanon. Lastly let me turn to the Middle East. For decades, the United States has worked to try to help achieve a comprehensive end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Immense though the challenges may be, we firmly believe that they can and must be overcome because the status quo is unsustainable.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“We commend Iraqi Prime Minister Al Abadi for his outreach in the region and to all of Iraq's communities, an effort that has consolidated his broad-based support. We urge his Government to continue along the path towards genuine inclusion of all groups in the political, economic and security future of the country. The spread of ISIL, the Al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups also threatens a security of Iraq and Syria's neighbours, most directly Lebanon. Hizbullah's involvement in the conflict in Syria violates Lebanon's policy of disassociation and has made Lebanon a target for violent extremist attacks. On 10 January, extremists staged a double suicide bombing in a cafe in the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood of Tripoli, Lebanon, in which 9 people were killed and dozens more injured.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“The United Nations Reliefand Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East estimates that 400 food parcels are needed daily to make the population's minimum needs. Yet over the past month, only 36 parcels in total have been distributed. That is 36 parcels distributed during a time when a minimum of 12,000 parcels were needed. Assad's brutality has helped fuel the rise of violent extremist groups like ISIL and the Al-Nusra Front, which are spreading terror and instability across the region. The United States and partner nations are committed to continuing to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL through operations in Syria, as well as in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi Government. Together with our partners, we are committed to rooting out ISIL's safe havens in the region.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“We encourage Lebanon and all receiving countries to coordinate closely with Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the development of criteria to ensure that those fleeing violence and persecution are able to enter these countries, just as we encourage Governments across the region and around the world to provide refuge for asylum-seekers, in accordance with international humanitarian principles. Lebanon deserves the election of a president and fully empowered Government to help deal with the considerable challenges the country faces. Electing a president is, of course, a Lebanese decision, but it is one that must be taken now for the sake of the Lebanese people. The suffering inside Syria is not limited to Syrians. Some 18,000 civilians are trapped in Yarmouk, the vast majority of them Palestinian refugees.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“In the face of such unprecedented need and desperation, all countries can and must do more, including by supporting the countries that are already hosting the majority of Syrian refugees and making robust contributions to the United Nations enormous $8.4 billion humanitarian appeal. No country has taken in more Syrian refugees than Lebanon, which is host to more than 1.1 million Syrians and is facing growing challenges in getting their basic needs, especially with the onset of winter.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“Around 7.6 million people have been displaced within Syria and more than 3 million Syrians have become refugees. On 2 January, the Italian Coast Guard intercepted a crewless ship floating 40 miles of the country's coast. Approximately 400 people, including many women and children, were on board, huddled together for warmth in containers originally built to transport livestock. Most of them were Syrians fleeing the civil war and had been abandoned on the ship by their smugglers and left for dead. People abandoned, freezing and starving in containers built for animals - that is what Al-Assad's brutality has done to Syrians. And this is not an isolated incident: days earlier, Italy's Coast Guard had intercepted another crewless ship as it steamed towards a collision with the coast with nearly 800 Syrians packed on board.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“That is why the United States is actively supporting the collection and preservation of evidence to support future justice processes in a variety of jurisdictions for war crimes and other human rights violations, including those involving sexual and gender- based violence. Those overseeing or complicit in these crimes must be aware that the international community is building case files on its abuses, and the files are growing. In the meantime, the immense suffering and insecurity caused by the regime's brutality and by the extremist groups, like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Al-Nusra Front, continue to deepen the most severe humanitarian catastrophe in a generation. Approximately 12.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria; some 5.5 million of them children - 5.5 million children.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 2,100 people died in Syrian prisons last year, and the bodies of many showed signs of torture. Because the Observatory only counts cases in which families have received a corpse or a death certificate, they believe the actual number to be much higher. This is consistent with the abhorrent practices of the Al-Assad regime brought to light by the Syrian defector Caesar. Al-Assad, those around him and any individuals overseeing or complicit in the commission of serious crimes in Syria must know that they will ultimately be held accountable.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“The Council must stop the Al-Assad regime's use of chemical weapons and ensure that it has fully declared and verifiably eliminated its chemical weapons programme, as required by resolution 2118 (2013) and by the Chemical Weapons Convention. We vigorously condemn the use of chemical weapons by any party anywhere. The use of chemical weapons is far from the regime's only deplorable act. As Under-Secretary- General Amos informed the Council one month ago today (see S/PV.7342), the use of barrel bombs against civilians has been particularly acute in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, rural Damascus, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Dar'a, and the regime continues to systematically use torture as a means of inflicting suffering and extracting information.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“Since we last met to discuss Syria, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released its third report, with further evidence indicating that the regime has repeatedly use chlorine as a weapon against civilians, directly violating international norms and Syria's international legal obligations. Investigators concluded "with a high degree of confidence" that chlorine gas was used against three opposition-controlled villages and Syria last year. In one affected village, 32 of the 37 people interviewed by OPCW investigators "saw or heard the sound of a helicopter over the village at the time of the attack with barrel bombs containing toxic chemicals". Of the forces fighting in Syria, only the Al-Assad regime uses helicopters and only the Al-Assad regime drops barrel bombs.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“It should also reduce violence, not provide cover for any side to advance military aims, such as redeploying forces, and we welcome serious efforts to advance a political dialogue consistent with the second Geneva communique, including those led by Special Envoy de Mistura. There is no military solution to this devastating conflict, only a political solution. In meeting after meeting before the Council, we have presented mounting evidence of the unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by the Al-Assad regime. This meeting is no exception.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“I thank and welcome you, Sir. We are grateful to have you here to chair a meeting on such critically important issues and we are appreciative of Chile's leadership every day. We thank Assistant Secretary-General ad interim Toyberg-Frandzen for his informative briefing. Today I will speak on three topics: Syria, Lebanon and the Middle East peace. On Syria, we welcome the efforts of United Nations Special Envoy de Mistura to establish a freeze in the city of Aleppo. Any freeze must be consistent with humanitarian principles and include measures to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
2015-01-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7360 (2015) · source
“Instead, it should serve as a wake-up call to catalyse all interested parties to take constructive, responsible steps to achieve a two- State solution, which remains the only way to bring an end to the ongoing cycle of violence and suffering. We hope that those who share our vision for peace between two States - Israel and Palestine, both secure, democratic and prosperous - will join us in redoubling efforts to find a path forward that can rally international consensus, advance future negotiations and provide a horizon of hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“He made clear that the "The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous State". The United States will continue reaching out to the parties in an effort to find a way forward, and we are ready to engage and support them when they are ready to return to the table. We will continue to oppose actions by both sides that we view as detrimental to the cause of peace, whether those actions come in the form of settlement activity or imbalanced draft resolutions in the Council. The parties have a responsibility to negotiate and own the hard choices that will be needed if they are to bring real and long-overdue change to their region to benefit their people. Today's vote should not be interpreted as a victory for an unsustainable status quo.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“The United States recognizes the role that the Council has played before in advancing a sustainable end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including through resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 1515 (2003), which calls for the creation of a Palestinian State alongside Israel, with both States living "side by side within secure and recognized borders". In a May 2011 speech, President Obama elaborated further that "the United States believes that negotiations should result in two States with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine... based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both States".”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source
“It could well serve to provoke the very confrontation it purports to address. For decades, the United States has worked to try to help achieve a comprehensive end to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, and we remain committed to achieving the peace that both the Palestinians and the Israelis deserve - two States for two peoples, with a sovereign, viable and independent Palestine living side by side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel. The United States does not just acknowledge the tremendous frustrations and disappointments on both sides over the years in pursuit of peace - we share them, and we understand the immense challenges that the parties need to overcome to make peace a reality. Yet at the same time, we firmly believe that the status quo between Israelis and Palestinians is unsustainable.”
2014-12-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7354 (2014) · source