Joseph A. Klein is the author of The UN Must Have No Say On U.S. Sanctions Against Iran
United Nations Special Rapporteur Idriss Jazairy sharply criticized the Trump administration’s decision to reimpose sanctions against Iran after the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). “The reimposition of sanctions against Iran after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, which had been unanimously adopted by the Security Council with the support of the US itself, lays bare the illegitimacy of this action,” Mr. Jazairy charged.
- Friday, August 31, 2018
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has chosen Michelle Bachelet for the key post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and submitted her name for approval by the General Assembly. Ms. Bachelet, a socialist, was most recently president of Chile between 2014 and 2018, having served previously as president from 2006 to 2010.
Natan Sharansky has written about what he called the "new anti-Semitism," which “is aimed at the Jewish state.” He described his ‘3D’ test “to help us distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism.” The 3D’s stand for “demonization,” “double standards,” and “delegitimization.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in New York City on Friday to deliver a firm message of resolve regarding North Korea to the members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as representatives from South Korea and Japan, at a closed-door meeting held at South Korea’s UN mission.
The text of the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was finalized last Friday, an inter-governmentally negotiated agreement prepared under the auspices of the United Nations to cover all dimensions of international migration. It will be formally adopted by UN member states at the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to be held this December in Morocco.
The United States has withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the Trump administration’s decision at the State Department Tuesday afternoon. “We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights,” Ambassador Haley said at a press conference announcing the decision. Secretary of State Pompeo added succinctly, “The Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights.”
At an emergency meeting held on June 13th, the United Nation General Assembly adopted another one-sided resolution against Israel. The resolution, proposed by Turkey and Algeria, deplored the use of allegedly excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly the Gaza Strip.
The United States has opened its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem, making May 14, 2018 an historic day for the Jewish state of Israel. Other U.S. presidents have made campaign promises to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, only to abandon their promises in deference to the foreign policy establishment and the so-called “international consensus.” In moving forward to fulfill his promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, President Trump ignored both the foreign policy establishment and “international consensus,” much as President Harry Truman did when he gave de facto recognition to the newly created state of Israel only eleven minutes after Israel’s proclamation of its independence.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accused Israel of using “excessive force” in dealing with Hamas-led demonstrations near and along the border fence in Gaza.
Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, delivered a blunt message at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Saturday. The meeting was convened at Russia’s request to discuss military strikes conducted by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France against key facilities supporting the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program.
President Trump condemned a suspected chemical weapons attack over the weekend on the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Douma that reportedly took the lives of more than forty people, including children. The president blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime for unleashing what appears to have been deadly chlorine gas.
As had been predicted for some time, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster is leaving his post as President Trump’s national security adviser. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will replace General McMaster, effective as of April 9th.
The ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was long overdue. He was not a team player in the Trump administration. To the contrary, during his tenure, Mr. Tillerson moved further and further apart from President Trump’s thinking on critical foreign policy issues. He would have done well to follow the example of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, rather than try unsuccessfully at times to undercut her.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, February 20th. He delivered many of the same old Palestinian talking points. He claimed that the Palestinians remain open to negotiations based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. “We are ready to take the longest journey,” Abbas declared. “We are ready to begin negotiations immediately.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has hired a public relations firm, 
Former Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly sought to undermine the Trump administration's current policy in dealing with the nihilist Palestinian leadership. According to an article appearing in Maariv, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post, Kerry met a senior Palestinian leader, Hussein Agha, in London recently and told him to convey a clandestine message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The message was that Abbas should “play for time” and “not yield to President [Donald] Trump’s demands.”
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a UN program that is supposed to provide humanitarian and developmental assistance to children around the world. While UNICEF does do valuable work on behalf of children, it is not the same organization that I remember collecting money for on Halloween decades ago. In more recent times, UNICEF has partnered with radical organizations pursuing pro-Palestinian and Islamist agendas.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley issued some stark warnings during a press briefing she held at UN headquarters on January 2nd. Her bluntness and moral clarity are welcome changes from the doublespeak and moral relativism we heard so often from her Obama-era predecessors, Susan Rice and Samantha Power.
