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United Nations Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on April 16, 2015 1 Comment
The wheels on the bus go thump-thump-thump...right over the guy tasked with fixing an impossible mess. It's official: Jamal Benomar, the UN's special advisor on Yemen has resigned. For the past four years, Benomar has been the person tasked with guiding the various factions in Yemen through a peaceful, post-Arab Spring transition. The UN hasn't provided any information regarding a possible reassignment for Benomar; however, when asked who was slated to replace him, officials said that they would select "someone who can talk to all parties." Because that's what's happening in Yemen right now---talking. But I digress. For a while, it seemed like Benomar was making progress---but then things began to unravel:
U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were private, said that ministers from the Sunni-led Gulf Cooperation Council met Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a trip to Kuwait in late March and told him of their unhappiness with Benomar.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 23, 2015 6 Comments
Yesterday the United Nations Security Council met in a rare Sunday meeting to discuss the devolving political and social situation in Yemen. What does that mean? It means that United Nations Special Adviser Jamal Benomar said a lot of words:
“Emotions are running extremely high and, unless solutions can be found, the country will fall into further violent confrontations,” Mr. Benomar declared. “Events in Yemen are leading the country away from political settlement and to the edge of civil war.” Meanwhile, pre-empting criticism of the UN-brokered political talks, the UN envoy also admitted that the international community had no other alternative but to continue in its calls for restraint, de-escalate the situation, and engage all sides, including Yemen's 12 political parties and the Houthis, in the political process. “I urge all sides in this time of rising tension and inflammatory rhetoric to appreciate the gravity of the situation and deescalate by exercising maximum restraint,” Mr. Benomar concluded. “Peaceful dialogue is the only way forward.”
I'm not going to sit here at my laptop and pretend that anything the UN did on Sunday even comes close to mattering. It was over the moment Benomar used the word "emotions." "Emotions" are not "running high." The US was forced to pull all remaining security forces out of the country amid a growing security disaster---and this happened after our first withdrawal and subsequent loss of half a billion dollars worth of military aid. Right now, Iranian-backed rebels are in control of key locations in a country once controlled by a western-backed government. The Yemeni al Qaeda cell is making moves internationally. ISIS has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings that killed over a hundred people, and wounded over three hundred. Oh, and Iran just did an arms dump benefiting Houthi rebels, and is making moves to seize more control over Yemen's infrastructure:

Posted by Amy Miller on March 19, 2015 4 Comments
Boko Haram is still burning its way through west central Africa, but a multistate coalition is slowly finding ways to fight back. Reports are just now surfacing that over the weekend, soldiers from Niger and Chad retook the city of Damasask from Islamic insurgent group Boko Haram. The push was part of a region-wide campaign to regain control of several areas in northern Nigeria.
An Associated Press photographer in the northeastern town said it was largely deserted of civilians. Four people, including an old man, came onto the street to wave at a convoy among 2,000 troops from Niger and Chad in the town. There were still signs of the town's occupation by the rebels. Their writings were scrawled on every wall and the groups' black and white flag still flew above some buildings. A group of Chadian troops transferred weapons confiscated from Boko Haram into a pick-up truck truck. They were then taken to helicopters for transport to Niger. The weapons included AK47 assault rifles and 50-calibre guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.
Boko Haram killed 10,000 people last year, and now the UN has finally come forward with a plan for a resolution to endorse actions taken by the governments of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin to further roll back the influence of Boko Haram. Using Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the resolution would endorse military action for a period of 12 months to take "all necessary measures" against Boko Haram. It also asks for the establishment of a trust fund to help finance the military operation. Of course, there are disagreements:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 30, 2014 10 Comments
The United Nations Security Council just voted against a controversial Palestinian Authority proposal, introduced by Jordan, requiring Israel to pull back to the 1967 lines (the 1949 Armistice line), including designating all of East Jerusalem (which includes the ancient Jewish Quarter of the Old City). The vote failed to get sufficient votes to force a U.S. veto. Aljazeera reports:
The UN Security Council has rejected a Palestinian resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to Israel's occupation by 2017. The resolution failed to muster the minimum nine "yes" votes required in the council for adoption. It received eight "yes" votes, two "no" votes from the United States and Australia, and five abstentions, from the UK, Lithuania, Nigeria, South Korea and Rwanda. The US, Israel's closest ally, had reiterated its opposition to the draft resolution earlier on Tuesday. Washington said it could not support the draft because it was not constructive and failed to address Israel's security needs.
Samantha Power US votes No Palestinian Statehood The Times of Israel adds that the result surprised the Palestinians:

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 29, 2014 29 Comments
While most Americans were enjoying Christmas Eve, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty went into effect. On the surface, the treaty is supposed to help regulate international arms trade but Awr Hawkins of Breitbart reports that there's more than meets the eye (emphasis is mine):
Gun Control Groups Cheer as UN Arms Trade Treaty Takes Effect Gun control groups cheered as the UN Arms Trade Treaty went into effect on Christmas Eve. Although the treaty’s ubiquitous aim is regulation of the export and import of small arms for signatories, Breitbart News has previously reported the treaty poses international gun control and, to be enforceable, will require the creation of an international gun registry. According to Reuters, Control Arms’ Anna Macdonald praised the treaty, saying, “Campaigners have been pushing for this moment for a decade.” She said the treaty could usher in the “dawn of a new era” if “robustly implemented.” She also indicated the UN treaty subjugates arms trade to “international law.”
Although the Obama administration has signed on to the treaty, Hawkins reports that Republican Senator James Inhofe prevented the senate from ratifying it. Liberal news outlet The New Republic describes the treaty as 'most reasonable' but controversy has followed the plan for over a year.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 13, 2014 16 Comments
Residents of Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia voted in this month's election to legalize marijuana within their states' borders, and this has some officials at the United Nations working overtime to convince U.S. officials to force the states to get in line with international norms. Via Reuters:
"I don't see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters. Asked whether there was anything the UNODC could do about it, Fedotov said he would raise the problem next week with the U.S. State Department and other U.N. agencies.
After Washington state and Colorado voted in 2012 to legalize recreational marijuana, the Justice Department made waves when it announced that it wouldn't challenge the new laws, causing some to question whether or not this could cause similar legislative initiatives in other states. Now, two more states and the District have voted to legalize, which means that if the UN wants to roll back legalization, they'll need to work fast, because the legislative trend is spreading:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 26, 2014 8 Comments
Mahmoud Abbas showed his hand today at the U.N., accusing Israel of genocide, getting a predictable reaction, via Times of Israel:
In his address, Abbas accused Israel of committing genocide in its recent conflict with terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip — calling 2014 “a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people” — and said that Israel was not interested in living in peace with its Palestinian neighbors. “It’s a speech of incitement full of lies,” an unnamed source from the PMO told the Hebrew press. “That’s not how someone who wants peace speaks.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said in a statement shortly after Abbas’s speech that the PA president demonstrated that “he doesn’t want and cannot be a partner for a logical diplomatic resolution.”
Here is part of the speech, in which Abbas heaps verbal abuse on Israel:

Posted by Amy Miller on September 24, 2014 11 Comments
President Obama addressed the United Nations today with the confidence of a world leader, although some would argue that he has yet to display competence in the area of actual international leadership:
Each of these problems demands urgent attention. But they are also symptoms of a broader problem – the failure of our international system to keep pace with an interconnected world. We have not invested adequately in the public health capacity of developing countries. Too often, we have failed to enforce international norms when it’s inconvenient to do so. And we have not confronted forcefully enough the intolerance, sectarianism, and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe. Fellow delegates, we come together as United Nations with a choice to make. We can renew the international system that has enabled so much progress, or allow ourselves to be pulled back by an undertow of instability. We can reaffirm our collective responsibility to confront global problems, or be swamped by more and more outbreaks of instability. For America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear. We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort. We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs; we choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 02, 2014 3 Comments
Fox News reports that the United States has executed a series of drone strikes against al-Shabaab strongholds in Somalia. The Pentagon is still reportedly assessing the success of the strike, which was aimed at al-Shabaab leadership:
A senior Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a U.S. drone targeted al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane as he left a meeting of the group's top leaders. The official told AP that intelligence indicated Godane "might have been killed along with other militants." The official said that the strike took place in a forest near Sablale district, 105 miles south of Mogadishu, where the group trains its fighters. The governor of Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, Abdiqadir Mohamed Nor, told The Associated Press that as government and African Union forces were heading to a town in Sablale district, they heard something that sounded like an "earthquake" as drones struck al-Shabaab bases. ... The U.S. action comes after Somalia's government forces regained control of a high security prison in the capital that was attacked Sunday by seven heavily armed suspected Islamic militants who attempted to free other extremists held there. The Pentagon statement did not indicate whether the U.S. action was related to the prison attack.
Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for an attack on a Mogadishu prison that occurred just prior to the American drone strikes. The prison, which serves as an interrogation center for the Somali government, is believed to be home to captured extremists. The Pentagon would not confirm that the U.S. took action in response to this attack.

Posted by David Gerstman on August 26, 2014 9 Comments
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has appointed a former New York State judge, Mary McGowan Davis to be the third commission member to investigate possible war crimes that might have occurred during Operation Protective Edge. The commission is to be headed by Prof. William Schabas. UN Watch reports:
The President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ambassador Baudelaire Ndong Ella (Gabon), today announced the appointment of Mary McGowan Davis as an additional member of the Commission of Inquiry charged with investigating human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the occupied Gaza Strip, in the context of the military operations conducted since 13 June 2014. Justice McGowan Davis will join William Schabas and Doudou Diène whose appointments were announced by the Council President on 11 August. ... In carrying out its work, the Commission of Inquiry will aim to establish the facts and circumstances of human rights violations and crimes perpetrated in order to identify those responsible. The Council also requested that the Commission of Inquiry present a written report to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-eighth session in March 2015.
The report will unofficially be called Goldstone II after the Goldstone report, headed by Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa launched by the UNHRC after Israel's Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 to stop rocket fire by Hamas from Gaza.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 28, 2014 7 Comments
Live Video and Twitter feed at bottom of post Last night the United Nations Security Council issued a Presidential Statement (less than a Resolution) demanding an immediate Gaza ceasefire. Hamas kept firing missiles, and Israel now is responding. Israel has rejected a ceasefire that does not include security guarantees. A devastating critique of John Kerry's botched ceasefire attempt, from left-wing Israeli author Ari Shavit:
If Israel is forced to ultimately undertake an expanded ground operation in which dozens of young Israelis and hundreds of Palestinian civilians could lose their lives, it would be appropriate to name the offensive after the person who caused it: John Kerry. But if the escalation does not happen, instead we should remember that those who prevented it are three people the Obama administration loathes: Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Ya’alon.
There was an explosion at Shifa Hospital (used by Hamas as a safe haven) which immediately was blamed on Israel, but now appears likely to have been a Hamas rocket misfire. We will update as the day goes on.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 18, 2014 9 Comments
[Council meeting now over] The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting at the request of Jordan. The live tweets are below. The main outcome is that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will leave Saturday for the Middle East to try to mediate a ceasefire. Security Council Emergency Meeting Gaza undersecretary of the UN Jeff Feltman

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2014 14 Comments
The killing of four boys on a Gaza beach has generated enormous criticism of Israel. Israel itself has expressed sorrow at the killing (see Featured Image Tweet). But one fact not reported anywhere except WaPo is that the area was known to be used for rocket launching: This clip is from British news. Note how the interviewer doesn't even attempt to hide his bias. Welcome to British media, and increasingly, U.S. left-wing media. Mark Regev, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister's office, held his own and handled it well:
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