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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“I thank Under-Secretary-General O'Brien for his briefing and for his special attention to the 250,000 to 275,000 Syrians trapped in eastern Aleppo. Let us put eastern Aleppo in some context. For years, the Council has called on the Al-Assad regime to end the brutal sieges that have inflicted suffering on hundreds of thousands of Syrians, who have been deprived of the food and medicine needed to survive. The community of Darayya, outside Damascus, besieged by the regime, received no United Nations aid for more than three years. Communities in eastern Ghouta received no United Nations deliveries for more than two years. After long and painful negotiations, negotiations that should never have been necessary in the first place, the United Nations and its partners barely managed to reach Syria's 18 besieged areas this year.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Rather, it continues to depend on the willingness of the Security Council, the Secretariat and each of our individual countries to do their part in implementing the resolution. Our collective security demands nothing less.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“In conclusion, as we all know, it took the P5+1, the EU and Iran two years of gruelling negotiations to reach a deal designed to address the international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. At several points, negotiations nearly collapsed, owing to distrust and the inability of participants to find a compromise. But we persisted, knowing that the instability that would come from a potential conflict demanded that we exhaust all options in seeking an effective diplomatic solution. The deal is a reminder of what we can achieve when we come together to confront shared threats and engage our adversaries through robust, principled diplomacy. Yet building on the progress made - progress that critics of the deal said the world would never see - is not guaranteed, and it is not irreversible.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“The lines of communication that we have developed with Iran over the course of our negotiations have already proven useful to engaging in other areas of vital interest, as occurred in January when Iran detained ten United States sailors and two United States naval vessels in the Persian Gulf. The sailors were released in less than a day in no small part because Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Zarif are able to work constructively. Iran has joined the International Syria Support Group, which is trying to resolve the horrific conflict in Syria - a goal that would be impossible without all the countries that are involved in the conflict in Syria at the table.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“Even beyond fulfilling its JCPOA commitments, the United States has engaged with Governments, businesses and banks throughout the world that have questions about our changed sanctions environment. To be clear, the deal has not resolved all of our differences with Iran. We continue to be profoundly concerned about human rights abuses that Iran commits against its own people and the instability that Iran continues to fuel through its destabilizing activities in the region, including repeated threats against Israel. But we are undoubtedly in a better place to address these and other challenges without the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“For our part, while some have argued that to be balanced, the report should give Iran a chance to express complaints about sanctions relief under the deal, the Security Council did not mandate the Secretariat to report on issues unrelated to implementation of annex B of resolution 2231 (2015). It was instead the Joint Commission that was carefully designed by the JCPOA participants to discuss and resolve such implementation issues, and that is the appropriate channel through which to raise such concerns. The United States has fully implemented all of its sanctions-related commitments under the deal, and we have responded to questions about them both through the Joint Commission and through extensive bilateral engagement with Iran.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“That is why the United States commends the actions of the Royal Australian Navy and the French Navy, which intercepted and confiscated Iranian arms shipments on 27 February and 20 March, respectively, as the United States Navy did on 28 March. It also means that the Council and the international community must call out Member States when they do not fulfil their responsibilities under the resolution. The United States disagrees strongly with elements of the report, including the fact that its content goes beyond the appropriate scope. We understand that Iran also disagrees strongly with parts of the report.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“The Secretary-General's report also documents violations of asset freezes and travel restrictions applicable to Iranian entities designated by the Council, such as the participation of Iran's Defence Industries Organisation in an arms exhibition in Iraq. No one - including United Nations Member States, the Security Council and the Secretariat - should turn a blind eye to such actions. As we have said all along with regard to this resolution, implementation is everything. That means that when the resolution is violated or actions are taken that are inconsistent with it, those actions must be documented and condemned. And it means that all Member States, especially the members of the Council, the P5+1 countries and Iran, which negotiated the deal, must do their part in implementing the resolution.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“Yet while it is undeniable that the deal has led to significant verifiable progress in rolling back Iran's nuclear programme, it is also true that Iran and other Member States have at times taken actions that, while not always violations of the JCPOA, are inconsistent with resolution 2231 (2015). The report released today by the Secretary-General (S/2016/589) documents a number of such actions. These include Iran's repeated ballistic missile launches, which the Council called upon Iran not to undertake. The report states that these launches have the potential to increase tensions within the region. Iran does not hide these launches. The report also notes violations by Iran of resolution 2231 (2015), such as armed transfers to other parts of the region, some of which have been interdicted.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“While Member State implementation of the commitments of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a subject for the Joint Commission rather than the Council, let me be clear that the United States, our P5+l partners and the EU have thus far fully and unequivocally implemented all our commitments under this deal by lifting nuclear-related sanctions specified in the deal and by providing clear and timely guidance to Government and private-sector partners about engagement with Iran that is now permitted. Consistent with the terms of the deal and directly resulting from the choices that its leaders have made, the economic burden on the Iranian people has been eased, and the United States will continue to implement its commitments in good faith and without exception under the JCPOA.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“The United States acknowledges and welcomes Iran's swift implementation of this historic deal, which has produced real, tangible change - change that, without question, has improved international peace and security, which is the primary purpose of the Security Council. We also recognize that negotiating this deal and implementing it has required overcoming great scepticism in some Iranian quarters. The world is safer because of this deal. It has been six months since the IAEA's verification that Iran completed its key nuclear-related commitments under the deal and the simultaneous lifting of United Nations, EU and United States nuclear- related sanctions.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“More than 98 per cent of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium has been moved out of the country. The remainder is under continuous monitoring to make sure that Iran stays withing the stockpile limit. As result, Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon remain closed, and Iran's break- out time has been extended from two to three months before the deal to at least a year today. We know all this and more because the deal granted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) unprecedented access to Iran's nuclear facility and supply chains, allowing for effective monitoring and evaluation. If and when questions or concerns arise in this monitoring, we have a process to address them.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“I thank Under-Secretary-General Feltman for his briefing today and Ambassador Oyarzun Marchesi both for the briefing and the leadership that he and his team have demonstrated in supporting the implementation of resolution 2231 (2015). It has been one year since the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia and the European Union (EU) concluded a deal with Iran to ensure that Iran's nuclear programme is and will remain a peaceful one. Despite a long history of deep mistrust on both sides, commitments have been kept. Despite dire predictions to the contrary, the deal has held. That is a truly significant achievement. In the time since, Iran has dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges and filled the core of its plutonium reactor at Arak with concrete.”
2016-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7739 (2016) · source
“When special batteries in Maram's hearing aids run out, Fatima, her mother, has noticed that Maram will not take the hearing aids out. According to Fatima, she says, "No, they might make me hear". Although a recent aid convoy made it possible for her to get a new set of batteries, Fatima is deeply anxious about what will happen to her daughter when they run out again in a few weeks. Now when young Maram draws pictures of people running away from bombs, Fatima sees that there is a little girl who is not running away, because she cannot hear. Those are the consequences for just one family of the Al-Assad regime's sieges. It is horrifying to think of what will happen if continued Syrian and Russian air strikes could force another 300,000 people in and around Aleppo to endure the same fate.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“These conditions are, needless to say, not conducive to resuming intra-Syrian negotiations. In December 2015, the Security Council unanimously expressed support for resolution 2254 (2015) for a Syrian-led political process that establishes credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance. Getting a genuine cessation of hostilities back on track is critical to this goal. The Syrian people desperately need a reduction in violence and sufficient humanitarian aid. In Daraya, another town outside of Damascus besieged by the Al-Assad regime, Fatima Lahham recently told a reporter about her 7-year-old daughter, Maram. Maram is going deaf. While others run for shelter when regime aircraft approach the town, Maram just cannot hear them coming.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“Take one example: the town of Madaya near Damascus, which is besieged by the Al-Assad regime. The people of Madaya are dependent on humanitarian deliveries for survival. Otherwise, they would be putting their lives in great danger if they tried to leave to get food, medicine or other basic supplies. According to a report from Physicians for Human Rights and the Syrian-American Medical Society, released just today, Madaya is surrounded by approximately 65 checkpoints. The report explains that each of those checkpoints can include military personnel, snipers and heavy weaponry. Between the town and the checkpoints, the report further notes, up to 12,000 landmines and a network of dirt mounds and trenches keep the town's 40,000 residents trapped. That is one landmine for every three residents.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“A besieged eastern Aleppo City would represent the largest such population in the country, with hundreds of thousands of additional Syrians cut off from regular access to aid. Russia, as a co-sponsor of the cessation of hostilities, should use its influence on the regime to help stop those attacks. Onthe humanitarian front, more than 590,000 people remain trapped in 18 besieged areas. In most of those cases, the regime and its allies continue to deliberately obstruct access to Syrians in desperate need of food and basic medicine. The regime regularly challenges the United Nations on the number of beneficiaries who need assistance in these besieged locations, trying to argue that the United Nations should be stocking even less aid in its convoys. The challenges to accessing these besieged areas remain immense.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“That is why the United States is helping the Lebanese Armed Forces build the capabilities necessary to counter violent extremism and protect the Lebanese people, an essential effort that more Governments should support. In Syria, the Al-Assad regime continues to attack civilians, besiege cities and prevent humanitarian aid from reaching those whose lives depend on it. Even as the regime and opposition committed to refraining from attacks during Eid Al-Fitr, the Al-Assad regime violated this commitment by continuing attacks on Daraya, outside of Damascus, as well as in Aleppo and Homs. The Al-Assad regime's attacks over the past week demonstrate its aim to encircle and cut off access to Syrians in the eastern part ofAleppo, with potentially devastating consequences.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“The report stresses the urgent need for affirmative steps to reverse each of these trends and calls on both parties to independently demonstrate through policies and actions a genuine commitment to a two-State solution. In other words, the parties should take steps now to move towards creating a peaceful two-State reality on the ground. The Quartet report provides a constructive path forward to help create the conditions for meaningful negotiations. In Lebanon, the country's politicians must show leadership and flexibility by electing a president in accordance with Lebanon's Constitution and national pact. Two years ofa presidential stalemate have hobbled the Government at a time when the country faces profound security risks, as demonstrated by the recent suicide attacks in the village of Al-Qaa.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“That way forward requires both sides to take all necessary steps to prevent violence and protect the lives and property of all civilians. The Palestinian Authority should act decisively to cease incitement to violence and clearly condemn all acts of terrorism, and both sides must refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric. Finally, the report rightly recognizes the challenging situation in Gaza and the threat it poses to the two-State solution. This includes the build-up of illicit arms and militant activity in Gaza, which must be terminated. The report also outlines in detail the very dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, with 1.3 million Gazans in need of sustained humanitarian assistance. The international community must accelerate Gaza reconstruction and assistance.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“The report is clear that Israel should cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, designating land for exclusive Israeli use, and denying Palestinian development. The Quartet report reflects our concern about the trends on the ground that are imperilling a two-State solution, such as violence, terrorism and incitement to violence, the settlement construction and expansion, and the political and humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are concerned that continuing on the current course will make the prospects of a two-State solution increasingly remote and risk entrenching a one-State reality. The Quartet report's main objective is to provide a way forward to achieve the goal that is shared by all on the Council - a negotiated two-State solution.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“If implemented, that would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process ofland seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two- State solution. As the Quartet report makes clear, this is notjust about settlement construction. It is a broader process that includes not giving permits for Palestinian development and demolishing the homes and structures of Palestinians. As the report finds, the population of settlements has more than doubled since the Oslo process began in 1993. Settlement activity is incompatible with a two-State solution and counterproductive to the cause of peace.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“That is why we condemn in the strongest terms the unconscionable terrorist attack last week in the West Bank, where a 13-year old girl, Hallel Ariel, was stabbed to death in her own home as she slept. In recent months, there has been a steady stream of Violence on both sides of the conflict. On 21 June, as we heard, a 15-year old Palestinian boy, Mahmoud Badran, was killed when returning home from a night out at a water park in the West Bank, in what the Israeli army said was an accidental shooting. Shortly thereafter, clashes broke out at Al-Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount during Ramadan. We offer our most sincere condolences to the families of Hallel and Mahmoud, and to all victims of senseless acts of violence. Israel has just announced the advancement of hundreds of settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“I thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his sobering presentation. Across the Middle East, we see trends moving in the wrong direction - of rising violence, of political leaders choosing conflict over peace, of innocent people paying the price as conflicts fester. Today, I will discuss those trends in Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian contexts, and what we can do to help reverse them. Let me begin with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We share the Secretary-General's serious concern about the situation on the ground, especially the violence against innocent civilians. There is absolutely no justification for terrorism or for the taking of innocent lives.”
2016-07-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7736 (2016) · source
“While the horrors of that attack will leave an indelible mark on the victims and their families, actions like these could ensure that the more than 170,000 people who continue to live in camps under the protection of peacekeepers in South Sudan are more secure. Reporting that is regular, rigorous and transparent, planning that anticipates threats and is constantly adapting to evolving conditions on the ground, and deployments that ensure that the peacekeepers who serve in the most dangerous situations have the capacity and the will to protect civilians - these are steps that, ifimplemented, will not only make peacekeeping more effective, but will save countless lives.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“At least 19 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. Thousands more people who had been living in the camp fled and chose not to return, deciding that they felt safer outside the gates than under United Nations protection. The day after the attack, one resident told a reporter: "I saw the United Nations soldiers run away. What happens next time? I do not know. I saw many people die." Soon after the attack, the United Nations took the initiative to set up a board of inquiry, which will brief the Council on its findings in a few weeks, findings that will be useful not only for ensuring that there is accountability - if, indeed, peacekeepers fail to protect civilians - but also to learn what the Council can do to prevent the next Malakal.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“We encourage all troop-contributing countries to make these Principles their own, as we believe they are indispensable to effective peacekeeping in the twenty-first century. Given the real-life implications of the Principles and what they suggest about a country's willingness to protect civilians under threat, we urge the United Nations to attach considerable weight to a country's commitment to implementing the Kigali Principles when it is selecting units for peacekeeping operations, particularly those operations deployed to volatile environments with civilian protection mandates. In February of this year, armed men attacked a United Nations protection-of-civilians site in Malakal, South Sudan, where nearly 50,000 civilians were seeking protection and shelter from the country's civil conflict.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“To give just one example, the Principles call for troop-contributing countries to empower the military commander of a peacekeeping contingent to make decisions on whether to use force to protect civilians, because experience has taught us that if a commander has to wait hours for guidance it may mean not being able to react in time to repel a fast-approaching attack on a nearby village. If properly implemented, the Principles can make peacekeeping missions more effective, improve security and save lives. At present, 29 countries, including the United States, Senegal - as we heard - Uruguay and France, have announced support for the Kigali Principles, accounting for more than 40,000 troops and police currently serving in United Nations peacekeeping operations. That is over one third of the uniformed personnel on the ground right now.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Troop- and police-contributing countries that have qualms about the mandates or that doubt their capacity to do what is asked of them should no longer deploy to missions simply because nobody else will. And neither the United Nations nor the Council should feel forced to leave in place Blue Helmets who are unwilling or unable to do what is asked of them. Here I agree with the Minister that the Kigali Principles can be extremely helpful in aligning the will and capacity of contributors with the demands of respective missions. The Principles are designed to provide a concrete blueprint for shaping the practice of peacekeepers in volatile situations, particularly with respect to the theme of this meeting: the protection of civilians.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“This has to have not only at the planning stage for missions but also at regular intervals for as long as the mission is deployed, in order to respond kinetic and evolving circumstances in real time. This is basic common sense and yet as we all know it is far too rare. Thirdly, and finally we must get better at matching the will and capacity of troop-contributing countries with mandates. Let us be honest: this was hard to do in the past, due to the scant supply oftroops and police. But the nearly 50,000 additional troops and police pledged at last September's peacekeeping summit and in the days that followed were a game-changer, allowing us and the United Nations system to help ensure a better fit between what missions demand and what troops and police from a given country are willing and able to do.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Some participants today were at the meeting of the troop- and police-contributing countries yesterday in which we heard first hand about what those troops are going through not being able to access food and basic supplies (see S/PV.7709). It is an embarrassment to the Council that we cannot make a collective demand on the Government to let that food reach those peacekeepers. The second way the Council can improve protection of civilians is through improving the way it plans and adapts missions to conditions on the ground. Fulfilling our responsibility to protect civilians demands anticipating and preempting threats that analysis suggests are likely to emerge.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Yet word of the Sudanese Government's latest obstruction took longer than it should have to reach the Security Council. Now that these reports have reached us, the Council must do much more to demand that the Government of the Sudan comply with its obligations under the Status of Forces Agreement with the United Nations and that the Government respect UNAMID's freedom of movement. The Council's inability to address this issue over the course of the past year is a shameful failure and a breach of our responsibility to the troops that we deploy who risk so much to advance peace in profoundly hostile environments.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“When appropriate, it also allows the Secretary-General to repatriate contingents that prove unwilling to protect civilians or that fail to investigate allegations of abuse or hold perpetrators accountable. To cite just one example, of why reporting matters, take the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) in the Sudan, where the Government of the Sudan continues to block vital equipment and supplies from reaching peacekeepers. As of Tuesday, 7 June, peacekeepers at Port Sudan only had 20 days worth of food remaining. Meanwhile, in southern Darfur, an entire battalion has been prevented from receiving personal weapons. Without such basic supplies, peacekeepers cannot even be expected to protect themselves, never mind to protect civilians who count on them.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Reporting is critical both for accountability and for bringing to the surface problems that have to be solved to make the collective enterprise more effective. Without reporting, impunity persists and bad practices become more common. Civilians are the ones who get hurt. When, on the other hand, a problem is reported to the Council, that is not a panacea, but we at least have a shot at using the bilateral and multilateral tools in our toolkit to address it. Regular reporting can also help the Council right- size missions, taking into account the performance of peacekeepers on the ground, while allowing Council members' international capacity to offer targeted training and equipment to address the challenges the troop-contributing countries face.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“And yet those same investigators could not find a single case - not one - in which the failure of a peacekeeping unit to execute the order of a force commander was conveyed to the Security Council, or even included in the mission's situation reports that are regularly sent to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. This is not a functional system, nor is it a system acting in accordance with the will expressed by the Secretary- General or in appropriate response to the necessity for the Security Council to know what is happening in the field in missions that we have mandated and that we must take responsibility to try to strengthen. This situation must change, and we collectively have to be the ones to make it change.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“We strongly support the Secretary-General's demand in the report he released last month that "[a]ny failure by peacekeepers to act or follow orders will be brought to the attention of the Security Council" (S/2016/447, para. 58). However, we all know that such failures are rarely reported to the Council in a timely manner. More often, reports take many months to emerge if they emerge at all. To give just one example, a report by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services in 2014 found that, in 507 attacks against civilians from 2010 to 2013, peacekeepers virtually never used force to protect those coming under attack, likely resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“The discoveries underscore the need for the Republic of the Congo, from where the peacekeepers alleged to have been involved in this incident have hailed, to ensure that the investigations and judicial proceedings under way are thorough and impartial, and to ensure that if any soldiers are found responsible they are held accountable. Again, we must treat these crimes as if they were crimes committed against our own people and act with equal Vigilance and urgency. In this context, I would like to focus my remarks today on three ways the Security Council can help address chronic shortcomings when it comes to civilian protection in peacekeeping. The first, reporting, should be easy.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“And, as we all saw just yesterday, terrorists reportedly killed and wounded many Ethiopian troops in a massive coordinated attack on an African Union Mission in Somalia base in the town of Halgan, Somalia. I would like to express sincere condolences on behalf of the American people and the United States Government to the people of Togo, China and Ethiopia, and in particular to the families of the victims for their immeasurable loss. I would also like to convey our collective gratitude for their honourable service. At the same time, we have seen other reports in recent days on the alleged extrajudicial execution of civilians in the Central African Republic by soldiers serving in the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in March 2014.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Today's meeting comes a critically important time, as recent news has cast light both on the serious risks peacekeepers continue to take with so little fanfare to fulfil their mandates in some of the most dangerous parts of the world and, unfortunately, on the horrific consequences when peacekeepers violate the trust placed in them to protect innocent people in those same vulnerable circumstances. On 29 May, five Togolese peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali were killed and one was wounded when their convoy was ambushed by terrorists in Mali's Mopti region. Two days later, a Chinese peacekeeper was killed and others injured when the camp where they were stationed in Gao was attacked.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Let me last welcome President Touadera, whose inauguration I had the honour of attending and whose commitment to making a clean break from the past is a much-needed change in the Central African Republic, a country that knows too well the human consequences when civilians are attacked and when those who can help them stand by. I was most moved at President Touadera's inauguration by his decision to have on stage with him the 19 opponents who had run against him in the election. That was a very moving gesture of reconciliation and one I am not sure many of our countries would be able to muster in our politics.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“I thank Minister Ayrault for being here with us to provide over today's debate. His presence is an affirmation of the importance that France attaches to protecting civilians, as evidenced in recent years by President Hollande's decision to send French forces to Mali and to the Central African Republic in the hour of their greatest need. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and for his sustained efforts in pushing Member States and United Nations officials to protect the vulnerable. We are grateful to the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mr. Peter Maurer, for his briefing today and for the valiant efforts of the ICRC staff every single day to provide vital assistance to people in dire circumstances.”
2016-06-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7711 (2016) · source
“Nevertheless, we need to find ways to increase our generosity towards those desperate civilians, so that the United States and all nations do their share to meet needs not seen since Europe's darkest days in the Second World War. The answer to a challenge as monumental as this displacement crisis cannot be to close our borders, jettison our core ideals and revert to a misguided and short-sighted sense of self-interest. A common challenge requires a common response, in Europe, in the United States and here at the United Nations. And it requires redoubling our commitment to the principles on which our common security and our common humanity depend.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“The scale of the challenges presented by the largest wave of displaced people since the Second World War is enormous. Their influx presents significant political challenges for many leaders across the continent, as they face calls to close their borders and abandon the principles at the heart of their individual Constitutions and at the heart of the EU. We understand here in the United States just how powerful those voices, and the fear that drives them, can be. We are hearing similar calls from some in the United States, including the governors of many states, who have said that they do not want to take in refugees from places like Syria.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“In both diplomatic efforts and investments in conflict prevention, the pooling of resources and influence has enabled EU member States to have far greater impact than if any one European country were to act alone. For that arrangement to work, however, member States must live up to their commitments and remain true to the common values at the heart of the Union. When that arrangement breaks down, when individual members put their narrow shared interests ahead of their shared goals, they jeopardize the enterprise and the dividends it yields for the EU and the whole world. That is my third, and final, point. We see that risk today in the responses of some EU member States to the unprecedented number of migrants and asylum-seekers who have sought sanctuary in Europe.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“In Africa, it is managing nine civilian and military missions, with projects ranging from reforming security forces in the Central African Republic to helping train the Niger's security forces to combat terrorism, organized crime and smuggling networks, to building military and security capacity in Mali and Somalia. The EU missions have complemented those of the United Nations and the African Union, thereby contributing to coordinated interventions that increase impact. At the same time, since 2003, the EU has provided more than â‚¬l.6 billion through the Africa partnership to support peace operations, capacity- building and institutional support on the continent.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“Secondly, the EU shows how a regional organization can use multiple tools in its toolkit - technical, financial, military and others - to target the root causes of instability, thereby helping to prevent violence before it arises. It has played an instrumental role, for example, in promoting the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, which is vital to ensuring stability in the Balkans, thus incentivizing Belgrade and Pristina by linking their respective progress in the dialogue to their respective paths to joining the EU. The EU has also engaged much further afield, as others have noted.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“The EU has responded to that threat by working first to help forge, and then to ensure compliance with, the Minsk agreements, including through the maintenance of sanctions on Russia. The United Nations human rights report released last week, which documents the widespread abuses to which the 2.7 million Ukrainians living in the territory controlled by the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk are subjected, including arbitrary arrests and torture, serves to underscore the urgency of the task and the need for the Council and the EU to keep the pressure on the parties to resolve the conflict, including by maintaining sanctions on Russia until it implements its Minsk commitments in full.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“The combination ofsustained pressure and determined, relentless diplomacy made it possible to agree on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which, if fully implemented, will ensure that Iran's nuclear programme remains exclusively peaceful. The EU is playing a central role in monitoring the ongoing implementation of, and adherence to, the Plan of Action as the coordinator of the joint commission, where its ongoing vigilance will allow us to determine whether or not Iran is upholding its commitments under the deal. Consider as well the diplomatic pressure the EU has applied to seek a political solution to the conflict in Ukraine, where Russia continues to occupy Crimea and to arm, train and fight alongside separatists in the eastern part of the country, in clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbour.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“The EU continues to provide a model for how regional organizations can work hand in hand with the United Nations to advance shared goals, from promoting sustainable development to seeking diplomatic solutions to deadly conflicts, to preventing mass atrocities. In my brief remarks today, I would like to suggest three lessons we can draw from the EU about how to make multilateral organizations, including this one, more effective in advancing international peace and security. First, the EU has demonstrated the effective pressure that regional organizations can exert to help address serious threats to international peace and security. Take Iran - the sanctions pressure exerted by the EU was critical to bringing Iran to the negotiating table, where the EU went on to play a key role in the negotiations to seek a diplomatic solution.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source
“We will never know how the countries of Europe would have evolved over the past half century without the creation of the EU. But, for all of the challenges the region faces in present times, the EU has delivered. It has delivered peace and prosperity of a kind the people of Europe never before enjoyed in a sustained way. That is a fact, and one too often obscured by the din of political debates. Moreover, as the members of the Security Council know, the benefits of Europe's peace and prosperity and the common principles the EU has done so much to advance have extended far beyond the continent, making it an invaluable partner to the United States and to so many other States Members of the United Nations.”
2016-06-06 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7705 (2016) · source