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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The usual suspects drag feet on Hariri tribunal
2007-05-26
Some Security Council members, led by Russia and Qatar, on Friday said they have difficulty accepting the draft resolution seeking to establish the Hariri Tribunal under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter as it stands now and urged the co-sponsors to redraft it and come back after the weekend with a new text. The co-sponsors - France, UK and the US - tabled their draft resolution officially on Friday. Russia, Qatar, Indonesia and South Africa voiced opposition to the draft as it stands and made suggestions on how to improve it.

Qatari envoy Nassir A. Al-Nasser told KUNA "we want a draft resolution that brings peace to Lebanon and not to affect the situation there. They took all suggestions and said they will examine them and come back with a redrafted text". He said his country is still trying with Lebanon to have the tribunal approved constitutionally.

Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters "we clearly identified fundamental differences which exist between us and we believe that until and unless those fundamental differences are resolved, there is no point in working on other less important elements of that resolution". His main objection, he stressed, is the mention of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter which makes the establishment of the tribunal mandatory. Churkin said all Security Council resolutions are binding and therefore there is no point of mentioning Chapter 7. He said his delegation expressed some concern on the legal ground and made some suggestions of how those concerns can be dealt with, describing some paragraphs of the draft as "very awkward, legally". The other main objection, he said, is the clause in the draft which puts the agreement between Lebanon and the UN into force. He said Russia also made the suggestion that "we are dealing with the republic of Lebanon, not just the government of Lebanon". He said Russia also proposed a "grace period" after which the resolution is adopted and enters into force "in the hope and expectation that before that period ends the Lebanese will be able to ratify it in Lebanon." He did not specify how long the period would be.

China is also opposed to the text as it stands.

Council president US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters following the informal meeting that the draft's co-sponsors will meet later today to examine the suggestions proposed by council members, with a view to a vote may be early next week. French envoy Jean Marc de la Sabliere told reporters that the draft is gaining more support with Slovakia joining the co-sponsors and Belgium is waiting for instructions to also join the four.
Have you ever noticed that national sovereignty is a nusiance to the Tranzis right up to the moment they can obstruct and obfuscate in the UN? Of course you've noticed. You read Rantburg.
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International-UN-NGOs
Reuters: Hey, that John Bolton guy was pretty good at his job!
2006-12-04
Now that he's leaving, Reuters finds some nice things to say about Darth Bolton. Skilled, effective, fair. Grrr.
The resignation of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations ends an era when the focus of U.S. diplomacy often rested, for better or for worse, on the man himself. Witty, a born litigator and in command of the facts, Bolton was front and center of most issues in the U.N. Security Council -- North Korea, Iran, Somalia, Myanmar, Sudan, among others -- but made enemies among nations in the U.N. General Assembly, responsible for management reforms and the budget.

"He is serious about the American objectives here in reforming the United Nations, and he pushed hard," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters. "But of course sometimes in order to achieve the objective you have to work together with others."

"His style is different. He is hard-working," Wang said. "He knows the job."

Bolton also had difficulties with European ambassadors, who should have been his closest allies. But he worked intensively with France on a ceasefire resolution, 1701, to halt the Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon this summer. "I would say we have always respected each other and we were able to work together, especially on 1701," said France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere through clenched teeth.

Unable to overcome Democratic opposition in the Senate to his nomination, the White House announced on Monday that Bolton would resign when his temporary appointment expires within weeks. Bolton's recess appointment last year had allowed him to bypass the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Democrats accused him of being a bully and of pressuring subordinates to align their views with his.
Subordinates are s'posed to support their boss...in this case, POTUS.
Bolton came to the job with a reputation for an abrasive style. But he defied many of his critics by being the only U.N. Security Council ambassador available to the press almost every day, answering countless questions and often delivering punchy sound bites that drowned out staid comments from Washington.

"It is to me really disappointing to see Ambassador Bolton go," said Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima. "He has been an exceptionally skillful diplomat at the United Nations at a time when it faced very challenging issues like reform."

"In the Security Council John Bolton was spearheading a number of important issues," Oshima said, singling out a resolution to rein in North Korea's nuclear program, where "he really spearheaded this effort to get a Security Council resolution adopted in a very speedy manner."

LESS SUCCESS WITH U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Several diplomats distinguish between Bolton's work in the 15-nation Security Council and that in the 192-member General Assembly, dominated by developing nations.

"In some ways, he seems to have been more an ambassador to the Security Council than to the United Nations as a whole and I think he has done very well there," said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor and U.N. expert.

But the problem, Luck said, is his actions in the General Assembly, which is increasingly polarized between developing and developed countries over changes to U.N. management practices, finances and a new human rights body.

"He is very good on preaching on reform but not good at doing it" raising the question of "whether he wants to strengthen it or find excuses for abandoning it," said Luck.

Greece's U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, said the United States was correct in the need for reform but "I might say that I personally would pursue the same thing through different tactics, but that is a different story."

But there was no love lost between the U.N. bureaucracy and Bolton, especially the U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton, who said in a June speech that the United States worked closely with the world body in many fields but tolerated "too much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping." In response Bolton called on Secretary General Kofi Annan to repudiate Malloch Brown "personally and publicly," but Annan stood by the "thrust" of the speech, his spokesman said.
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International-UN-NGOs
Jimmeh may lead UN investigation of Israel
2006-11-17
As Palestinian Arab rockets struck two Israeli towns yesterday, U.N. bodies prepared to launch no fewer than two overlapping "fact-finding" missions to second-guess Israel's anti-terrorist tactics. President Do you have to remind us of that? Can you at least put "Former President?" Carter could head one of those missions.

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to convene a special emergency session tomorrow to deal with the November 8 Israel Defense Force artillery strike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which killed 19 terrorists and supporters civilians. A draft resolution for the assembly session calls on the U.N. secretary-general to establish a fact-finding mission into the event and requests that he report back to the assembly in a month.

And yesterday in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council led by Sudan and China, which in its five months of existence has failed to pass one resolution on any country other than Israel, concluded its third emergency session on the Jewish state. In the session's resolution, the council called on its president, Ambassador Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, to establish a fact-finding mission to investigate the incident at Beit Hanoun.

A diplomat in Geneva who requested anonymity said the sponsors of the resolution are planning to ask Mr. Carter to head the investigation. Other candidates include the diplomats Martti Ahtisaari of Finland and Sadako Ogata of Japan.

Israel, which is conducting its own investigation into the incident, has yet to decide on its level of cooperation with the U.N. probes. "I wish there was some coherence at the U.N.," a U.N. official who requested anonymity said yesterday. As things stand, he added, no rule exists to prevent system-wide redundancies where separate bodies can create missions to investigate the same event.

The proposed resolution for tomorrow's General Assembly session draws most of its language from a Security Council resolution proposal that was vetoed on Friday. In addition to the fact-finding mission, the new proposal calls on "the international community, including the Quartet" – America, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia – to establish "an international mechanism to protect civilians."

The French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, made similar suggestions last week at the 15-member Security Council. Europe was split in the Friday council vote: France and Greece voted for the Arab-sponsored resolution, while Britain, Denmark, and Slovakia abstained and America vetoed the resolution.

Asked about the idea of a council-sponsored fact-finding mission and the establishment of a mechanism to protect civilians in Gaza, the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, responded to The New York Sun with one word: "No."

In the past, Arab and Muslim countries have used the General Assembly, where they can easily marshal a voting majority, to convene emergency sessions designed to override an American veto in the Security Council. Friday's assembly meeting will mark the 15th time the emergency session has been convened since its establishment in 1997 to condemn the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem.

"The assembly turns itself into a court of law where the Arabs have a majority," the deputy Israeli U.N. envoy, Daniel Carmon, said. As result, he said, the assembly always deals with events like Beit Hanoun and avoids the underlying cause. "The cause is terrorism. The U.N. should not shy away from investigating terrorism," he said. Specifically, he cited yesterday's events in Sderot, where an Israeli woman was killed and several injured in a rocket attack from Gaza that was also directed at the coastal town of Ashkelon.

In Geneva, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution by a vote of 32 in favor, eight opposed, and six abstaining, that condemned Israel for the "willful killing" of Palestinian Arab civilians. Most of the Europeans on the 47-member council opposed the resolution or abstained.

In the aftermath of the Beit Hanoun attack, which according to IDF commanders was the result of an error, many European leaders, including the British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, denounced Israel's recent incursions against rocket-launching sites in northern Gaza. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Olmert, have apologized for the incursions. But in a speech to Jewish leaders in Los Angeles yesterday, Mr. Olmert vowed to continue the operations in Gaza. "At this time, the [ IDF's] general staff is holding a meeting to discuss the steps that need to be taken," he said. "We will decide on more steps on the war against terror which is emanating from the Gaza Strip and which is incessant."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
EU backs limited sanctions against Iran
2006-10-18
The European Union, spurred by North Korea's nuclear test, backed limited United Nations sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme on Tuesday after Tehran spurned conditions for opening negotiations. The EU's 25 foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, called for incremental measures that officials said would be targeted first at individuals and materials involved in Iranian uranium enrichment activities. The West suspects Iran is seeking nuclear weapons but Tehran insists it only aims to generate electricity.

After four months of talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Iran this month rejected a U.N. demand that it suspend enrichment. "The Iranians' refusal leaves us no choice today but to take to the Security Council route. The Security Council should adopt gradual, reversible measures proportionate to Iranian actions," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called it the "first step in sanctions" but stressed the EU's offer of cooperation remained on the table if Iran was willing to meet the conditions. In New York, French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told Reuters three European powers -- France, Britain and Germany -- planned to put forward a draft U.N. Security Council resolution "during the course of this week. We are aiming for Wednesday or Thursday."

EU ministers made clear that alarm at North Korea's nuclear test and its implications for other countries were one key factor in showing their resolve towards Iran, although their economic interests with Tehran are far greater. "The most important thing is to have a united response as we showed with North Korea," European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

Spanish Secretary of State for European Affairs Alberto Navarro said sanctions would be gradual because Europe, unlike the United States, needed Iran as an oil supplier. Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the approach with Tehran would be gentler than with Pyongyang. "A sanctions resolution on Iran will not be swift or biting as it has been with North Korea," he said, noting that while Pyongyang openly affirmed its nuclear weapons intentions, Tehran insisted its programme was peaceful. There was no conclusive proof it sought an atom bomb, he said.

Solana, who negotiated with Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani in a vain effort to persuade Tehran to suspend its most sensitive nuclear work, said he had spoken by telephone with Larijani on Monday and the door would remain open. "I think there is always hope, and I would like it to be possible to start again, but it is up to Iran now to accept the conditions to start real negotiations," he said.

In a statement, the ministers expressed deep concern that Iran had not yet suspended enrichment activities and said the EU has no choice but to support consultations in the United Nations on measures on the basis of resolution 1696, which told Iran to suspend enrichment by August 31 or face sanctions. Russia and China have so far been reticent about any sanctions, but a European diplomat said they had accepted the principle of an incremental approach raising pressure.

In Vienna, a senior diplomat familiar with International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring in Iran said Iranian efforts to develop its enrichment programme beyond the initial test phase appeared slow. Iran had planned to have a second cascade of 164 centrifuge enrichment machines running by end-September but this had not happened, he said, while the first cascade was only being sporadically fed with uranium UF-6 gas for enrichment into fuel. Analysts have estimated Iran will need 3-10 years to produce enough fuel for bombs.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanese objection delays vote at UN
2006-08-08
Opposition from Lebanon caused the United States and France to delay vote on a UN resolution, diplomats said. The current draft of the Security Council resolution calls for "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations" %u2013 implicitly giving Israel the right to pursue "defensive" operations. Israel views the draft favourably, as it does not order Israel to withdraw its 10,000 soldiers from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon wants the draft UN resolution to include an explicit demand for a full Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon. France asked the US to delay a discussion of the draft resolution to make certain changes. France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said changes would probably be made to the draft resolution.

The Security Council has scheduled a public debate on Tuesday on the conflict, to be attended by envoys from several countries. A Lebanese official said Arab League foreign ministers would send a delegation to the United Nations to try to push through the amendments Lebanon wants.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
7 Killed in Israel by rockets of Hezbollah
2006-08-03
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas killed seven people in Israel in a rocket barrage on Thursday despite an intensive Israeli ground and air campaign to wipe them out, as world powers struggled to end the 23-day-old war. Ah yes, the old 7 were killed despite the Joooos best efforts to keep civilian casualties to zero argument. In the lead paragraph, no less.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the war had killed 900 people in Lebanon and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12 (Wonder why that is? Care to explain there, Hezbollah?). He said a million Lebanese, a quarter of the population, had been displaced and infrastructure devastated. The Reuters tally of Lebanon deaths is at least 683. Color me shocked, the Roooters body count is less than Lebanon's? Guess they're eating crow over that whole 50-60 dead in Qana, when it was only 28 (even though I do grieve each of those 28 personally).

Hizbollah has continued to unleash rockets despite Israeli assertions that the guerrilla group has been dealt a heavy blow by the war. On Wednesday, a record barrage of 231 missiles killed one person and wounded scores. Boy, the Hezzies are the most accurate muzzie rocket launchers ever. Methinks even "apes and pigs" could do "better."

Sixty-five Israelis have been killed in the conflict, including 39 soldiers, two of whom died in fighting on Thursday. A Lebanese security source said 80 Hizbollah fighters had been killed so far -- well below the Israeli estimate of 300-400. So, Hezbollah has now launched hundreds (if not 1,000+) of rockets, and killed 26 Israeli civilians? What a quagmire. Not to mention that I lean toward believing Israel's count of Hezzie deaders. I mean a lot of those so-called "civilians" in Lebanon are probably Hezzie gun-toters or at least supporters/suppliers.

The United States, France and Britain hope for a U.N. Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and maybe strengthen existing U.N. peacekeepers until a more robust force can be formed, U.N. officials said. I like the word "maybe" in that sentence.

"I'm now hopeful we will have such a resolution down very shortly and agreed within the next few days," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "The purpose of that will be to bring about an immediate ceasefire and then put in place the conditions for the international force to come in."

But splits between the United States and France, a possible leader of the new force, over the timing of a ceasefire have complicated diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

France's U.N. ambassador said he was less confident that a Security Council resolution could be adopted within days.

"Yesterday morning I was confident that we could have a resolution adopted in the coming days, but by the end of the day I was less confident," Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said. So, France is now in on the good cop/bad cop routine while Israel wipes the Hezzies off the map? Good Lord, what's wrong with this world?
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
France gives proposals for Mideast resolution
2006-07-20
The UN Security Council should consider a resolution calling for a lasting cease-fire in the Middle East, the release of abducted Israeli soldiers and the possibility of a peacekeeping force, France proposed late on Tuesday. In a list of suggestions that could be included in a resolution, France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said the 15-member council should adopt "at the appropriate moment" a measure for a "sustainable solution to the crisis." De la Sabliere, in a paper circulated to council members, suggested work could begin "in the coming days" following a briefing on Thursday by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a mission he sent to the Middle East. In an indirect reference to Hizbollah militants, de la Sabliere said any resolution could call for the "disarming and disbanding of all militia in Lebanon" so the Beirut government could assert authority over all its territory.
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China-Japan-Koreas
UN hopeful of N Korea sanctions
2006-07-14
Japan and the United States have insisted on a UN Security Council resolution that would enact mandatory sanctions on North Korea's missile programme as negotiators sought to prevent a veto from China. Talks at the United Nations in New York have narrowed some differences on the sanctions, which would prevent a transfer of materials or funds for North Korea's missile or nuclear programmes. But other problems remained, diplomats said. Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, France's UN ambassador and this month's council president, said he hoped for agreement on Friday on the basis of a modified text that Japan drafted. But he acknowledged that talks could spill into Saturday. France is among the eight sponsors of the resolution.

In Tokyo, Shinzo Abe, the cabinet secretary in charge of coordinating government policy told Reuters in an interview that Japan would "insist on a binding resolution with sanctions." And Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese prime minister, during a visit to Jordan, said he wanted a vote on the resolution on Friday, a day before the Group of Eight industrial nations meet in St Petersburg, Russia. Acknowledging that compromises would have to be made, Taro Aso, Japan's foreign minister, told a news conference that "it is common sense that both sides cannot achieve a perfect grade so both sides have to compromise so they can be satisfied."
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International-UN-NGOs
US vetoes UN resolution urging end to Israeli attacks in Gaza
2006-07-13
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The United States vetoed a UN draft resolution that would have called for an end to Israeli attacks and "disproportionate use of force" in the Gaza Strip as well as for the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier. The Security Council resolution received 10 votes, one against from the United States with four abstentions, French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the council president for July, announced.

Explaining his negative vote, US Ambassador John Bolton described the text as "unbalanced" and was "not only untimely but also outmoded" because of the attacks against Israel by Lebanese Hezbollah militants and UN chief Kof Annan's decision to send a crisis team to the region. He said adoption of the resolution would have exacerbated tensions in the region and would have undermined "our vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security."

The United States, Israel's staunchest ally, last used its veto in the Security Council in October 2004, to block a similar draft demanding that Israel end all military operations in northern Gaza and withdraw from the area. France, a permanent member of the council, voted in favor while Britain, Denmark, Slovakia and Peru abstained.

Earlier versions of the Qatari draft had already been rejected by Western members for being "unbalanced" because they did not mention the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants and repeated rocket firing into Israel.
The latest version calls on Israel to "halt its military operations and its disproportionate use of force that endanger the Palestinian civilian population and to withdraw its forces to their original positions outside the Gaza Strip."
It also calls for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the abducted Israel soldier and urges Israel to immediately and unconditionally release all detained Palestinian ministers.

The Palestinian Authority is meanwhile asked "to take immediate and sustained action to bring an end to violence, including the firing of rockets on Israeli territory."
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China-Japan-Koreas
Japan firm on missile position
2006-07-13
Japan remains firmly behind its U.N. Security Council draft resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea, despite France's proposed compromise this week, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Wednesday. "As far as Japan is concerned, we basically will seek adoption of the resolution," Abe told reporters.

French Ambassador to the U.N. Jean Marc de la Sabliere issued a statement Tuesday saying the Security Council could take a "two-step approach" to North Korea's missile launches last week. France is proposing to first adopt a "very strong" presidential statement and then, depending on developments, discuss a resolution.

France is one of the countries that agreed to the Japan-proposed resolution. Other backers include the U.S., Britain, Greece, Denmark, Slovakia and Peru. France's move appears to be aimed at easing tension between China, which wants a nonbinding U.N. presidential statement on North Korea, and Japan and the U.S., which seek stronger action.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
40 militants die in Gaza bloodshed to date
2006-07-08
Just a roundup...
ISRAEL claims to have killed nearly 40 Palestinian militants since an offensive was launched in the Gaza Strip last week. Israeli officials said an air strike yesterday killed one Hamas militant and wounded three Palestinians as Israeli troops dug in across a swath of the northern Gaza Strip after a bloody day of fighting with Palestinian gunmen. "What is happening on Palestinian land is a crime against humanity," said the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, as he visited the wounded. "The Israeli killing machine must stop."

The Israeli Army said an aircraft had opened fire yesterday on a group of four armed men close to the scene of the worst violence on Thursday, when 19 Palestinians and one soldier were killed. The father of the captured Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit called on the Government to consider releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his son, despite its refusal to negotiate with the captors. "Everything has a price," Noam Shalit said. "I don't think there will be some sort of move to free Gilad without a price. That's not the way it works in the Middle East."

A newspaper poll showed 82 per cent of Israelis believed the Government should assassinate Hamas leaders in response to the crisis. The poll showed 47 per cent were unhappy with the performance of the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. At the United Nations, Arab states asked the Security Council to demand Israel immediately withdraw from Gaza, but France and the US criticised their proposed resolution as unbalanced. The draft resolution, introduced by Qatar, condemned Israel's detention of dozens of Palestinian officials. "[The resolution] is not balanced enough," said the French envoy, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere. "We will propose amendments."
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China-Japan-Koreas
U.N. Security Council To Meet On North Korea On Wednesday
2006-07-05
The U.N. Security Council plans to meet in closed session on North Korea's long-anticipated missile testing on Wednesday morning, a French spokesman said. The meeting was requested late on Tuesday by Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, who is expected to introduce a draft resolution, diplomatic sources said. France's U.N. Ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, whose country holds the council presidency for July, said in an e-mail he had "received a request from the Ambassador of Japan for a meeting of the Security Council (on) the launch of missiles by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."
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