Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist

UN Security Council Continues To Dither On Syria

Senior United Nations officials once again urged the Security Council to “come together to put an end to the bloodshed” in Syria. “We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people,” the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos said in her briefing to the Security Council on July 16th.

Russia Submits Expert On-Site Syria Chemical Weapons Report To The UN

Russia’s United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin announced on Tuesday that he had just provided UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a detailed 80 page report setting forth the results of an analysis of samples taken by Russian chemical weapons experts on-site in Syria.

The United Nations’ Confusion About Terrorism

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed earlier this month the appointment of Jean-Paul Laborde from France as Executive Director of the UN's Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. One problem with this appointment from the get-go is that Laborde does not believe there needs to be a definition of terrorism in order to deal with it. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah are terrorist movements, according to the new UN Executive Director of Counter-Terrorism.

North Korean UN Envoy Blames the United States For All His Country’s Problems

At a news conference held on June 21st at United Nations headquarters in New York, UN Ambassador Sin Son Ho of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (referred to in short as North Korea or DPRK) accused the United States of being "entirely responsible for the ever-worsening situation on the Korean Peninsula."

UN Special Envoy Confirms Dire Situation In Libya

Tarek Mitri, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Libya, delivered a dose of reality to the UN Security Council in his briefing on June 18th regarding the bleak political and security conditions in that beleaguered country. While he does not think that Libya was in imminent danger of complete collapse and that opportunities remained for progress through inclusive political dialogue, Mr. Mitri believes there are very serious problems that require significantly more assistance from the international community to help resolve.

Susan Rice’s Talking Points: The Syrian Chapter

Outgoing United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice delivered the latest set of the Obama administration's talking points to reporters on Friday June 14th, this time regarding the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons and the U.S. response. Rice said that U.S. intelligence agencies had determined with "high confidence" from "multiple streams of information" that the Assad regime has used the chemical weapon sarin multiple times in small amounts over the last year. There was no reliable, corroborated reporting, according to Rice, that the Syrian opposition possesses, or has used, any chemical weapons.

UN Ignores Hamas Training Of Child Soldiers

The annual report of the United Nations Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict highlights progress it claims was made in 2012 to protect children living in countries affected by conflict, but also documents how the evolving character and tactics of war are creating unprecedented threats for them.

The Grenade-Throwing President of the Palestine Olympic Committee Comes To The UN

Palestinian Major General Jibril Rajoub, Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and the president of the Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee, spoke to reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York on June 6th. He was accompanied by Palestine's Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Riad Mansur.

President Obama Chooses Left-Wing Samantha Power For UN Ambassador Post

Samantha Power, who previously served in the Obama administration as Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council, is President Obama's choice to take Susan Rice's place as the United States' Ambassador to the United Nations.

New High-Level UN Development Panel Report Retreads Old Left-Wing Ideas

On May 30, 2013,the United Nations High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda released a report entitled “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development.” Its authors claimed that the report sets out a "universal" and "transformative" agenda to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2030, and deliver on the promise of sustainable development.

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Displays Usual Intransigence In United Nations Speech

Saëb Erakat, Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Chief Palestinian Negotiator, addressed the 352nd meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at UN headquarters in New York on May 20th. His message was wrapped in the standard Palestinian victimhood narrative. It contained superficially nice sounding words about the Palestinians' interest in peace but only on their terms.

The United Nations Hezbollah Protection Force

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1701 in August 2006, which brought about an end to the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The resolution called on the Lebanese government to "secure its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel" and authorized the peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon ('UNIFIL") to assist the government of Lebanon to accomplish this objective "at its request."

UN Peacekeepers In Sudan Fail to Protect Black African Tribal Chief From Arab Militia Executioners

South Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations Francis Deng told reporters on May 12th that the Misseriya Arab tribesmen's attack on a convoy of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and a delegation of the Ngok Dinka tribe the previous week killed his older brother, the Ngok Dinka tribe's Paramount Chief Kuol Deng Kuol.

The UN, Syria and Israel

The United Nations' investigations into the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria are going nowhere. The UN Security Council is paralyzed when it comes to dealing with the current crisis in Syria, and is unwilling to enforce resolutions it passed years ago to prevent Syria's neighbor Lebanon from becoming Hezbollah's staging ground to attack Israeli civilians with sophisticated imported rockets.

Stalemate Continues On UN Chemical Weapons Investigation In Syria

H.E. Bashar Ja'afari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, held an hour long press conference today at UN headquarters in New York where he complained of "fraudulent accusations" against the Syrian government that it has used chemical weapons against the Syrian people. He said that such charges leveled at his government, including those based on unreliable intelligence assessments, lacked "any corroborated facts" and reminded him of the unfounded weapons of mass destruction charges leading up to the Iraq war in 2003.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Office Criticizes UN “Human Rights Expert”

Richard Falk - a top "expert" appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to justify the Council's anti-Israel bias - characterized the Boston Marathon terrorist bombings as an understandable reaction to the "American global domination project."

UN-Arab League Special Envoy To Syria Brahimi Won’t Resign - At Least For Now

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, expressed frustration with the deteriorating situation in Syria and the lack of UN Security Council action in remarks to reporters following his closed door briefing Friday morning to the Security Council.

UN Hypocrisy And Money Drain In Gaza

In response to a deteriorating security situation in and around Gaza including the resumption of rocket firings into Israel from Gaza, Israel has taken some measured security steps to restrict the movement of people and goods to and from the Gaza Strip. Since March 21st, these restrictions have also included a reduction in the fishing limit from six to three nautical miles.

Flawed UN Arms Trade Treaty Stalled For Now But Poised For Quick General Assembly Approval

The President of the United Nations' Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, Australian Ambassador Peter Woolcott, ruled on March 28th that there was no consensus of the member states to adopt the final draft text of the treaty because of formal objections raised by Iran, North Korea and Syria.

UN Arms Trade Treaty On The Verge Of Adoption

Update From the UN in New York City: Iran and North Korea just blocked consensus adoption of the arms trade treaty. Syria also objected but did not raise its flag to formally block consensus. The meeting was suspended pending informal consultations They are still conferring but the most likely outcome in the absence of full consensus today is referral to the General Assembly for a vote next week on the draft treaty which should require no more than a two thirds vote. I would predict that one way or the other this folly is going to be adopted within a week for signature and ratification by the member states.