YouSaid · the spoken record

Wood

lines on the record

630

first

1994-05-05

most recent

2023-12-21

sittings or episodes

107

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un-security-council

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1. “The United States remains committed to holding the Syrian regime accountable for its use of chemical weapons, and it condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons anywhere, by anyone, under any circumstances. Just yesterday, we took action to hold accountable three Syrian regime military officials involved in the August 2013 air strikes on Ghouta: they and their immediate families are now ineligible to enter the United States. The regime should end its intransigence and simply meet its obligations under both resolution 2118 (2013) and the Chemical Weapons Convention as quickly as possible. Doing so would be a positive step towards enhancing our collective security and would help ensure that we never again witness the horrific scenes that we have seen in Syria over the past nine years.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

2. “The Council is not duped by the Al-Assad regime’s obfuscation, aided by its ally Russia. OPCW States parties are not duped either and continue to support the OPCW’s work on Syria. That has been repeatedly demonstrated, most recently at the 101st meeting of the OPCW Executive Council, held earlier this month, and by the overwhelming support for the organization’s budget, which includes funding for the Investigation and Identification Team. The regime’s continued refusal to provide answers or information requested years ago by the DAT is an affront to the OPCW, the Council and the international community. Meanwhile, the regime’s failure to declare and destroy its chemical weapons stores is a threat to the Syrian people and the wider region. Taken together, those behaviours undermine our collective security and make the world less safe.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

3. “As we heard today, for that reason the OPCW Director- General continues to assess that the Syrian declarations still cannot be considered accurate or complete. Syria’s failure to provide complete and accurate information is extremely concerning. There is indeed a real possibility that the Al-Assad regime could once again use chemical weapons, as it has done repeatedly against its own population. The United States Government assesses that the Al-Assad regime has used chemical weapons at least 50 times since Syria joined the Convention in 2013. The OPCW- United Nations Joint investigative Mechanism and the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) have independently confirmed the regime’s use of chemical weapons on eight occasions. The IIT’s work is ongoing, and we look forward to its next report on the April 2018 attack on Douma.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

4. “As such, we continue to call on those with influence over the Al-Assad regime to encourage Damascus to immediately permit the DAT to return to Syria, resolve discrepancies and help ensure the verified elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, as it is bound to do under the Chemical Weapons Convention and resolution 2118 (2013). In the absence of such positive action, we call on the Al-Assad regime to provide a full response to the DAT’s information request as expeditiously as possible. It is worth noting, however, that even when the Syrian regime has provided information, the regime’s chemical weapons declarations have been riddled with gaps, inconsistencies and unresolved discrepancies.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

5. “Therefore, rather than comply with its agreements and make the world and Syria safer, the regime has instead worked for years to pull the wool over the eyes of the Security Council. The Al-Assad regime, backed by Russia, continues to obfuscate and delay rather than fully declare the chemical weapons stockpiles it has repeatedly used — a violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it joined in 2013. The Al-Assad regime also continues to prevent the deployment of the OPCW’s Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) to Syria, in clear violation of its obligations under resolution 2118 (2013). The DAT has now proposed to address unresolved issues via correspondence. While the United States commends the OPCW for seeking a way forward, document review is no substitute for the DAT deploying to Syria.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

6. “I thank Mrs. Nakamitsu for her briefing. We appreciate her persistent efforts and the work of the experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to provide independent, thoroughly researched and detailed information about the lack of Syria’s progress towards the complete and verifiable elimination of its chemical weapons programme. Nine years ago in October 2013, the Syrian regime submitted to the OPCW its official plan for the systematic, total and verified destruction of its chemical weapons programme. Just weeks earlier, the regime had killed approximately 1,000 people in a horrific chemical attack on Ghouta. Faced with such carnage, the Syrian regime should have been shamed into changing its ways and finally ridding the world of those barbaric weapons. But the Al-Assad regime has no shame.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9164 (2022) · source

7. “As we said many times, the United States is in Syria for the sole purpose of enabling the ongoing campaign against ISIS. We are committed to preserving our limited presence in north-east Syria as part of a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS and Al-Qaida, working by, with and through the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and other local partners. On the issue of Syrian oil, Syrian oil is for the Syrian people. The United States does not own, control or manage any of those resources, neither do we wish to. As part of the effort to defeat ISIS, the SDF will continue to deny ISIS access to oil and gas revenue in north-east Syria, which it previously used to fund its terror campaign.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

8. “As was detailed in the Secretary-General’s recent report (A/76/890), while there are various entities that work on aspects of that important file, none have the explicit mandate to solely focus, or conduct investigations, on the missing and the detained. We stand with the Syrian human rights defenders, survivors and families working on the file. We look forward to continuing to support them, Syrian civil society, the United Nations and NGOs in order to make genuine progress towards the establishment of a new mechanism. Nearly every Syrian family has been traumatized by the disappearance of a loved one, and we all have a responsibility to do right by those families and those still detained. If I may, I will just respond to some comments made by the representative of the Russian Federation.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

9. “We call on the regime and all parties to the conflict to immediately and humanely release all unjustly detained persons, clarify the fate of those missing or forcibly disappeared and provide support to the victims’ families. The United States fully supports the establishment of a stand-alone entity with a humanitarian mandate focused entirely on clarifying the fate of all Syria’s missing persons — people who went missing at the hands of the Al-Assad regime, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) or other parties to the conflict. Confirming the whereabouts and status of the thousands of missing Syrians and releasing the arbitrarily detained are essential to achieving a stable, just and enduring peace in Syria. We believe that the new entity will be vital to that work.”

   2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

10. “The United States fully supports Special Envoy Pedersen’s efforts to revive the Constitutional Committee and take other steps to achieve the aims of resolution 2254 (2015). It is imperative that the Al-Assad regime take meaningful action to demonstrate its commitment to the political process. One such action would be to provide information about the approximately 130,000 disappeared or arbitrarily detained Syrians. Human decency demands that the Government at least provide basic information on the whereabouts and well-being of detainees to families that have been left in the dark. But information, while critical, is in no way enough. Providing information to victims’ families should be pursued in parallel with other efforts.”

    2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

11. “Procurement has been undermined because orders need to be placed months in advance. Aid workers are spending time worrying about contingency plans rather than on how to roll out stronger interventions, including early-recovery. As we heard on many occasions here in the Security Council, from United Nations reports, from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and at the informal interactive dialogue in September, the United Nations operation is transparent, efficient and apolitical. It delivers assistance based on need — full stop. As we look to January, we need to be focused on the renewal of that life-saving mandate. In addition to our efforts to meet the immediate needs of the Syrian people, we must also stay focused on a long-term political solution.”

    2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

12. “While there has been some notable progress on cross- line assistance, cross-border deliveries are the only realistic mechanism to ensure that millions of people in north-west Syria get the help that they need through this upcoming winter and beyond. Russia’s decision to block a 12-month extension of the cross-border mandate is having real consequences on the ground. The humanitarian operation is among the largest and most complicated in the world. Yet the Council was not able to give United Nations aid workers what they most need to succeed: a resolution mandate that prioritized the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people above cruel political calculation. The United Nations is having trouble recruiting staff to join the mission given the uncertainty after January.”

    2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

13. “For our part, we provided funding to help first responders throughout the country to deliver medical care, nutrition and clean water. Those efforts are essential to saving lives and stopping the spread of the infection. We are also proud to support humanitarian early-recovery projects that are rehabilitating community water systems, which is critical to preventing future outbreaks. But, with thousands of suspected cases and mounting deaths, the situation will only worsen without unfettered access for humanitarian actors. Central to that effort is the renewal and expansion of the United Nations cross-border aid authorization in January.”

    2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

14. “I thank Special Envoy Pedersen and Director Ghelani for their informative and sobering briefings. We are deeply troubled by the renewed and intensified fighting in the north-west. The violence endangers civilians and interferes with the delivery of humanitarian assistance, compounding an already- dire situation and creating conditions that could lead to significant displacement. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a designated terrorist group, must stop its escalatory actions in the area. The Syrian people have suffered enough, and this new round of violence only exacerbates conditions on the ground. As we heard from the United Nations and its partners, the growing cholera epidemic reflects the still worsening humanitarian situation. The time to ramp up our assistance to the Syrian people is now, before the outbreak spirals further out of control.”

    2022-10-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9163 (2022) · source

15. “The United States remains a steadfast partner of MINUSCA and looks forward to working with Special Representative of the Secretary-General Rugwabiza, the Central African people and Government and the members of the Council in order to bring peace to the Central African Republic.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

16. “The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, whose forces are referred to as “other security personnel” in the Secretary-General’s report (S/2022/762), perpetrated numerous incidents of human rights abuses during the reporting period, often in the presence of national defence forces. Independent investigations continue to corroborate those reports and note that Wagner Group forces are rearming ex-combatants, creating proxy militias outside the Government’s authority and stealing the country’s mineral wealth. Those egregious activities exacerbate violence, restrict the development of the Central African Republic and undermine regional stability. The Central African people deserve better.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

17. “Similarly, we stress the importance of women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in those processes. Integrating women, youth and minority voices into all levels of decision-making ensures that peace processes are effective and sustainable. We are encouraged by the Central African Republic’s initiative to advance the peace process, specifically through the leadership of Prime Minister Moloua, but the Central African Republic cannot do it alone. Constructive engagement by partners lends further support to the peace process and overall regional stability. Unfortunately, some entities continue to destabilize and exploit the Central African Republic.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

18. “Despite those challenges, MINUSCA’s robust and proactive posture protects civilians, helps push armed groups to disarm and return to the peace process, and safeguards communities, allowing displaced civilians to return home. We commend the enhanced cooperation between the Mission and the Central African armed forces. Joint operations are a way to further professionalize the Central African security forces and support a durable restoration of State authority. With that said, the military alone cannot bring peace to the Central African Republic. A stable, prosperous State can emerge only through an inclusive political dialogue, the full implementation of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the Central African Republic, the expansion of State authority and justice for victims.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

19. “As we approach MINUSCA’s mandate renewal, we must ensure that it has all the tools necessary to protect the safety and security of United Nations personnel. The flow of illicit arms negatively affects regional security as well as the safety and security of civilians and peacekeepers. As this tragic incident demonstrates, the current sanctions measures will remain critical until the Central African Republic and the States of the region can address cross-border smuggling and diversions to armed groups. We are also concerned about reports from the Panel of Experts on the Central African Republic that anti-personnel landmines continue to be found in the country. We urge all actors to immediately halt the use of landmines, especially as part of strategies to control illicit mining.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

20. “They were killed by an explosive device while on patrol. While we do not yet know who is responsible for laying the device that took their lives and gravely wounded another, their deaths were even more tragic because evacuation options were limited by the Central African authorities’ restrictions on the Mission’s evacuation procedures. If MINUSCA had been able to swiftly evacuate the peacekeepers by air, rather than by a nine-hour journey overland, they might still be with us today. In that regard, the United States joins calls for a rigorous investigation that identifies and brings to justice those responsible. We also call on the Government of the Central African Republic to adhere to the status of forces agreement and lift its restrictions on MINUSCA’s movement.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

21. “First let me welcome the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic and the representative of Rwanda. I thank Special Representative of the Secretary- General Rugwabiza for her briefing, which was quite comprehensive. Her report highlights the essential role the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) plays in protecting civilians and providing stability in the Central African Republic. I would also like to convey the deep appreciation of the United States to the Mission’s leadership, its peacekeepers and the troop- and police-contributing countries for the sacrifices they make each and every day in pursuit of peace in the Central African Republic. Tragically, three Bangladeshi peacekeepers made the ultimate sacrifice earlier this month.”

    2022-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9156 (2022) · source

22. “We are disappointed that the Council has not moved toward sunsetting UNMIK, including by developing a plan to close the Mission. The Council has far more pressing priorities to address, and its resources are limited. We urge the Council to take steps that will allow for a more productive and relevant role for the United Nations in Kosovo and will facilitate the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and thereby help advance stability in the Western Balkans.”

    2022-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9155 (2022) · source

23. “The EU-facilitated dialogue continues to be the principal mechanism for reconciling issues between the two neighbours, which has made the role of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) in the region increasingly redundant. As we have said in this Chamber many times before, UNMIK has long fulfilled its purpose as outlined in the original mandate. Make no mistake: UNMIK played a critical and important role in maintaining peace in the past. However, Kosovo, with the aid of its European partners, has developed and strengthened its institutions to take on much of the responsibilities once under UNMIK jurisdiction. These briefings no longer need to be held on a six-month basis and should be reduced to annual meetings.”

    2022-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9155 (2022) · source

24. “We likewise encourage the implementation of steps outlined in the energy road map and serious discussion on the potential establishment of the association of Serb-majority municipalities. We cannot stress enough the need for stability in the Western Balkans. The EU-facilitated dialogue is a key component of that. We strongly encourage Serbia and Kosovo to keep tensions low by focusing on dialogue progress and avoiding inflammatory rhetoric. We urge both sides to work with the United States and European partners to implement the agreed energy road map and to avoid tensions over licence plates.”

    2022-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9155 (2022) · source

25. “Serious and urgent engagement between the sides in the dialogue facilitated by the European Union (EU) is needed in order to achieve comprehensive normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, centred on mutual recognition. I want to commend EU Special Representative Lajčák’s engagement with the two parties. The United States will remain closely engaged with him and our European partners in support of the dialogue. Through the EU-facilitated dialogue, Serbia and Kosovo adopted an energy road map and peacefully resolved the issues of exit and entrance documents at their borders. We hope that a similar consensus will be reached regarding the issuance and recognition of licence plates.”

    2022-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9155 (2022) · source

26. “I thank Special Representative Ziadeh for her briefing. I would also like to thank Foreign Minister Selaković and Foreign Minister Gërvalla-Schwarz for participating in this meeting. I want to begin by reaffirming our commitment to safeguarding stability in the Western Balkans, especially during this time of greater tensions in Europe caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The United States will continue to work closely with our European partners to foster peaceful and prosperous multi-ethnic societies, in addition to strengthening democracy and the rule of law. The United States reaffirms its support for Kosovo’s path towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and the European paths of all countries in the Western Balkans.”

    2022-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9155 (2022) · source

27. “We support the appeal in the resolution for the international community to contribute to the Trust Fund for RENAMO in terms of financial assistance for the implementation of the General Peace Agreement. My Government has just contributed £500,000 to this Fund. We also support the appeal for contributions to the special trust fund for assistance to the registered political parties. We believe that the elections in Mozambique can take place on schedule if the parties are determined to achieve this. We exhort them to summon the political will that is needed. The international community for its part will do all it can to help and will accept no second- best outcome.”

    1994-05-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3375 (1994) · source

28. “Both parties, and especially RENAMO, should commit themselves fully to completing demobilization by 15 July. We consider this the key to successful implementation of the peace process. My Government is also concerned about the slow pace of building up the new Mozambican Defence Force. We hope the Government of Mozambique and RENAMO will now move speedily to identify the soldiers required to form the Defence Force. Regular pay must be provided for them. The training of the new army must be accelerated. We warmly welcome the offer by Zimbabwe to provide assistance in the training of infantry battalions and hope that this offer will be taken up quickly. We recognize that another crucial step along the road to the successful completion of the electoral process is the transformation of RENAMO into a political party.”

    1994-05-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3375 (1994) · source

29. “The parties need now to redouble their efforts to meet the electoral timetable. Further delay is in no one's interest. For Mozambique the elections and the successful completion of the peace settlement represent a new beginning. For the international community, sticking to the timetable is crucial. We remain extremely concerned about the slowness of progress towards implementing some key aspects of the Agreement. The assembly of forces is behind schedule. It really needs to be completed by 1 June, as set out in the resolution we have just adopted. ONUMOZ has still not been given accurate information on the number of troops remaining to be assembled, nor has it been allowed access to military bases to verify the presence of military equipment. It is essential that this is now done. Likewise, progress in demobilization is still lagging.”

    1994-05-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3375 (1994) · source

30. “Let me begin, Sir, by offering you the good wishes of the United Kingdom delegation upon your assumption of the office of President of the Council. My delegation also expresses its admiration to Ambassador Colin Keating of New Zealand for the excellent manner in which he conducted the affairs of the Council in the month of April. My delegation welcomes the report of the Secretary-General, in which he records the progress made in the implementation of the General Peace Agreement for Mozambique since the adoption of resolution 898 (1994). We were particularly pleased by the announcement by President Chissano on 11 April that elections will take place on 27 and 28 October this year. This is a major step forward. It is essential to stick to that deadline. The next few weeks are crucial for the successful implementation of the peace process.”

    1994-05-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3375 (1994) · source