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Looking for a quick and easy boost in the polls, President Obama has decided to go to the one place where merit bears no relationship to adulation: the United Nations. On September 24, the president will take the unprecedented step of presiding over a meeting of the UN Security Council.

The United States, Japan and South Korea will view the launch as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang carried out the nuclear test and other missile tests. That resolution, number 1718, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program." U.N. Security Council diplomats have told Reuters on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions. Both Russia and China, the latter the nearest the reclusive North has to a major...

UNSC votes 14-0-1 (US abstains) to ceasefire resolution. Full text of resolution and discussion at Update 325. NOTE: FOLLOWING ARE SUMMARIES OF STATEMENTS MADE TODAY TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING ON THE MIDDLE EAST. A COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THIS MEETING WILL BE AVAILABLE SHORTLY AS PRESS RELEASE SC/9567.

Excerpt - UNITED NATIONS (AFP)--The U.N. General Assembly on Monday agreed to begin negotiations on expanding the membership of the powerful Security Council no later than next Feb. 28. After hours-long bargaining, the assembly adopted by consensus a resolution on Security Council enlargement on the last day of its 62nd session. ~ snip ~ It said the aim was to "garner the widest possible political acceptance by member states." ~ snip ~ During the transitional period, a number of configurations including a repartitioning of seats on a regional basis and the most delicate, the veto- wielding power of the five...

Russia blocked UN Security Council action on the Georgian crisis, refusing to support a Western-backed draft resolution calling for an immediate Russian military withdrawal. Even though Moscow has said it will withdraw, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council the resolution should include and endorse a six-point peace plan promoted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and signed by both Georgia and Russia. Since the French-drafted text did not do this, "the Russian Federation will not be able to support (it)," he said. The council meeting ended with no attempt to put the resolution to a vote and French and other Western...

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Cooperation with nuclear inspectors could be affected, Tehran says. TEHRAN — Iranian officials said Sunday that any further United Nations Security Council sanctions on the country could jeopardize its recent decisions to grant international inspectors greater access to nuclear sites and disclose information about past activities. Iran last week announced a decision to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, to monitor its heavy-water reactor near the western town of Arak, after having barred them this year. Iran also agreed on increased safeguards for its uranium enrichment facility near the town of Natanz and to...

The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to set up the international tribunal that would try ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins. The 15-member council adopted a legally binding resolution that sets June 10 as the date for the entry into force of an agreement between the U.N. and Premier Fouad Saniora’s government to establish the court. Ten countries voted in favor, with veto-wielding members Russia and China as well as South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar -- three non-permanent members -- abstaining. Immediately after the voting in New York, fireworks lit Beirut’s skies in celebration of the tribunal’s establishment. A sound...

FRANCE was helping prop up a psychotic dictator with its trenchant opposition to an American-led war on Iraq, government backbencher Cameron Thompson said tonight. France, along with Russia, Germany and China, helped sink a new resolution in the United Nations Security Council which would have paved the way for a UN-backed war in Iraq. Instead, France was pushing for UN arms inspectors to be given more time to scour Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. French President Jacques Chirac today condemned plans by the US, Britain and Australia to launch a unilateral strike to disarm Iraq, warning the decision ran...

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Iran's U.N. Mission sent a letter to the Security Council president Thursday officially requesting permission for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak during its discussion on a resolution that would impose new sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, a council diplomat said. Iranian state television quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham on Sunday as saying Ahmadinejad wanted to take his case for pursuing nuclear power before the council as it considers the sanctions resolution. ~ snip ~

23 December 2006 – Capping months of intensive negotiations, the United Nations Security Council today unanimously decided to impose a set of sanctions against Iran in response to its uranium-enrichment activities, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but which other countries contend are driven by military ambitions. The adoption of the sanctions resolution – immediately rejected by Iran – came after successive reports by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog, indicating its inability to certify that the country's motives are entirely peaceful. Agency Director-General Muhamad ElBaradei has said the IAEA is unable to...

Excerpt - The U.N. Security Council is set to adopt Saturday a draft resolution that bans the transfer of items that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, U.N. diplomats said Friday. The draft resolution is a modified version of what had been agreed upon earlier between the permanent five members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States --plus Germany. It will be the first sanctions resolution to be adopted by the Security Council since the International Atomic Energy Agency referred the issue to the...

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution authorizing a regional peacekeeping force to be deployed in Somalia. The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States, Congo, Ghana and Tanzania, also eased the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia to facilitate the deployment of the peacekeeping force. It authorized the 7-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an east African group, and the African Union to establish "a protection and training mission in Somalia" for an initial period of six months. The regional force would monitor progress made by both sides in implementing...

Pyongyang: the resolution of UNO is a "declaration of war" Seoul - the North Korea regards as a "declaration of war" the adopted resolution Saturday by the Security Council of UNO sanctioning its nuclear test of October 9. It again promised a response. "It goes without saying that the Council Resolution of safety of UNO cannot be interpreted differently than like a declaration of war against the RPDC (democratic popular Republic of Korea)", a spokesman of the Foreign Affairs declared quoted by official agency KCNA. Indeed, this resolution "was based on the scenario according to which the United States...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council should congratulate North Korea for its nuclear test instead of passing "useless" resolutions or statements, North Korea's U.N. ambassador said Monday. Pak Gil Yon told reporters he was proud of the North Koreans who conducted the test, and said the Security Council ought to be, too. Asked if the North planned any more tests, Pak said: "That will be enough. You don't think so?" The council was holding a meeting about the test, and several diplomats warned of tough measures, possibly including the threat of sanctions. "It will be better for the...

Iran: Chirac proposes that the Six give up seizing the Security Council PARIS - French president Jacques Chirac proposed Monday that the six great powers in load of the file of the Iranian nuclear power "give up seizing the Security Council" for sanctions, and that "Iran gives up the enrichment of uranium" to allow the negotiation. "We must initially find an agenda of the negotiation, then to enter into a negociation and, during this negotiation, I suggest that, on the one hand, the Six give up seizing the Security Council and that Iran gives up throughout the negotiation the...

http://www.un.org/webcast/index.asp

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Following is the text of the operative provisions of a draft resolution circulated to members of the U.N. Security Council on Friday. The preambular provisions have been omitted for reasons of length. THE SECURITY COUNCIL, ... Determining that the situation in Lebanon constitutes a threat to international peace and security; 1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations; 2. Upon full cessation of hostilities, calls upon the government of Lebanon...

The resolution on Lebanon presented at the Security Council Friday New York (the United Nations) - the Franco-American draft Resolution on Lebanon will be presented Friday at the Security Council, announced a French diplomat with UNO. "the text will be +mis in bleu+ and presented at the Council with 15H00" (19H00 GMT), declared this diplomat, under cover of anonymity. France and the United States, Co-godfathers of the text, aim at obtaining a vote later in the evening, perhaps towards 18H00 (22H00 GMT), still indicated this source. The "setting in blue" of a text means that it is ready for...

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The United States and France have completed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on a cessation of hostilities and a framework for a political settlement between Israel and Lebanon. The full 15-member council has to review and accept the text. A vote is anticipated on Monday or Tuesday. Following are highlights from the draft: Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon "immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;" Expresses its intention, after agreement from Lebanon and Israel to a "political...

BEIRUT, Aug 5, 2006 (AFP) - US Mideast envoy David Welch arrived in Beirut for talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese government source said on Saturday. Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, was also due to hold talks with parliament speaker Nabih Berri after arriving overnight Friday, said the source, who asked not to be identified. The US embassy in Beirut declined to comment. The visit comes almost one week after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to shelve a visit to Lebanon during...

JERUSALEM, July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she believed a ceasefire can be reached this week to end fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Here is an edited text of her comments: "This morning, as I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and a lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week and I am convinced that only by achieving both will the Lebanese people finally be able to control their country and...

Excerpt - The UN Security Council on Wednesday agreed to issue a statement condemning an attack by Israel on a UN observer post in Lebanon which left four peacekeepers dead, diplomats said. But the United States refused to agree a Security Council presidential statement demanded by China which said the attack was "apparently deliberate", diplomats said. ~ snip ~

Annan succession: first white vote Monday with the Security Council New York (the United Nations) - the Security Council of the United Nations was to hold Monday a first white vote on the four official candidates at the post of secretary-general of the Organization, who aim at succeeding Kofi Annan in January, one learned from diplomatic sources. The result of this white vote, envisaged towards 16H30 (20H30 GMT) in camera, was to be the subject the no official communication of, specified one of these sources. The four official candidates all are originating in Asia, of many countries estimating that...

Amb Bolton seems pleased, nut I wonder if it really is a success?

Security Council 5490th Meeting (PM) SECURITY COUNCIL CONDEMNS DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA'S MISSILE LAUNCHES, UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTING RESOLUTION 1695 (2006) Demands Suspension of All Related Ballistic Missile Activity;Urges Country to Return Immediately to Six-Party Talks Without Precondition The United Nations Security Council today condemned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's recent test-firing of a series of missiles, and demanded that the North-East Asian country suspend all ballistic missile related activity and reinstate its moratorium on missile launches. Acting "under its special responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security", the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1695 (2006), by the...

ALARM - the North Korea rejects the resolution of UNO aiming it New York (the United Nations) - the North Korea firmly rejected Saturday the constraining resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations condemning it for its recent shootings of test of missiles.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to unanimously adopt a resolution on North Korea over its recent missile tests on Saturday afternoon, according to a Japanese government source in Tokyo. Japan and the United States have agreed to delete references to Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, which would have paved the way for economic sanctions or military action against Pyongyang over its sudden missile launches July 5, the source said. The two countries instead agreed to confirm ''verbally'' at the time of the Security Council vote that the resolution will have binding power, the source said, adding...

ALARM - Gaza: the Security Council will vote on a draft Resolution New York (the United Nations) - the Security Council will vote Thursday evening on a draft Resolution calling at the end of the military operation of Israel in the Gaza Strip and with the release of the Israeli soldier removed, according to the French ambassador, President-in-Office of the institution.

The following is the gist of a draft resolution on North Korea over its recent missile tests, circulated at the U.N. Security Council by China and Russia on Wednesday. The U.N. Security Council: -- expresses serious concern over missile launches on July 5, 2006 local time by North Korea which had a negative effect on the peace and stability in Northeast Asia and beyond. -- expresses its grave concern about North Korea's indication of possible additional launches of ballistic missiles in the near future. -- expresses also its desire for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation and...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China, backed by Russia, submitted its own draft U.N. Security Council statement on North Korea on Monday, fearing a resolution imposing sanctions might be used to lay the groundwork for future military action. But the United States, Britain and Japan opposed the statement as the Security Council put off council action to allow a high-level Chinese delegation to talk to Pyongyang. China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters after another round of council consultations that a resolution branding North Korea a threat to international peace and security "could be used by member states to take...

A top North Korean propagandist raised the threat of nuclear war yesterday as the fighting talk triggered by the isolated regime's missile launches got scarier than any disintegrating Taepodong-2. Kim Myong-chol, a freelance propagandist for the Stalinist state, claimed North Korea would treat any country supporting UN sanctions against it - and that would definitely include Australia - as a nuclear missile target. "Now the US is seeking sanctions for us doing nothing in violation of international law - this is outrageous," he said in Tokyo yesterday. "North Korea considers this an act of war and North Korea will...

Excerpt - NORTH Korea has threatened to take "stronger physical actions" after Japan imposed punitive measures in response to this week's barrage of missile tests and pushed for international sanctions at the United Nations. Japan introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution yesterday that would bar missile-related financial and technology transactions with North Korea, but China and Russia, which have veto power, opposed any punitive measures. Ambassadors from Japan, France and the United States said no vote would be held until Monday at the earliest. Japan had pushed for a vote today. Meanwhile Australia is reportedly prepared to offer North...

Excerpt - UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday demanding that Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested. The draft faced immediate opposition from the U.S. and France, which called it unbalanced in its criticism of Israel. France's ambassador said he would offer changes, but U.S. Ambassador John Bolton suggested that Washington opposed the resolution entirely. ~ snip ~

The following is the gist of a draft text of a resolution circulated by Japan on Wednesday among U.N. Security Council members on North Korea's test-firing of missiles. The U.N. Security Council: -- reaffirms that proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security. -- deplores that North Korea is the world's leading proliferators of ballistic missiles and related technology. -- expresses grave concern that North Korea's launch of ballistic missiles, given the potential of such vehicles to be used as a means to deliver nuclear,...

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday claimed its successfully conducted missile launches were part of routine military drills to raise self-defense capabilities, and will be continued. "The successful launches of missiles this time were part of our normal military exercises that were aimed at reinforcing our self-defense capabilities," a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency. The statement came one day after the communist state fired seven long- and medium-range missiles, including a Taepodong-2, which is believed to be capable of reaching as far as...

The North Korea threatens to draw from other missiles in "self-defence" SEOUL - the North Korea confirmed Thursday that it had carried out shootings of test of missiles, threatening to renew this "act of self-defence" if the international community made pressure on the mode. "the successful launching of missiles makes this time started from our normal military exercises the purpose of which are to reinforce our capacities of self-defence", according to an official statement of the ministry north-Korean of the Foreign Affairs, quoted by the South Korean agency Yonhap. "Our armed forces will continue their shootings of test of...

Japan plans to call for the U.N. Security Council to discuss imposing sanctions on Iran if Tehran does not promptly respond to the incentives package presented by six countries for resolving the nation's nuclear standoff, according to Japanese government sources. Tokyo will make the proposal at the July 15-17 Group of Eight summit of major powers in St. Petersburg, Russia, the sources said, adding that if the Security Council reopens talks on the issue, adoption of a resolution paving the way for economic sanctions and other measures against Iran would draw renewed attention. However, it remains uncertain if the G-8...

"I believe in my heart of hearts and in my gut that this president fails that test in Iraq. And I know this because I, personally, and others were deeply involved in the effort with other countries to bring them to the table. I met with the Security Council of the United Nations in the week preceding the vote in the Senate."

UNITED NATIONS, May 3 (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a draft U.N. Security Council resolution put forward on Wednesday by Britain, France, the United States and Germany as the council's proposed response to Iran's nuclear program. The draft was presented at a closed council meeting after Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported last Friday that Iran had failed to respond to a council statement calling on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities. The Security Council - Recalling the statement of its president, S/PRST/2006/15, of 29 March 2006, - Reaffirming its...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - 0429dv-iran-nuclear Iran said on Saturday it would allow United Nations inspectors to resume snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, but only if the dispute again went before the U.N. nuclear monitor. The White House rejected the offer, which apparently came as Iran sought to avoid a full-blown U.N. Security Council debate over sanctions. "Today's statement does not change our position that the Iranian government must give up its nuclear ambitions, nor does it affect our decision to move forward to the United Nations Security Council," White House spokesman Blaine Rethmeier said. Russia, which has steadfastly opposed...

LONDON, April 21 (IranMania) - According to an AFP report, a senior UN nuclear inspector put off a trip to Iran late Thursday in what diplomats said was a clear sign that Tehran is failing to give the UN atomic agency key concessions it demands. The development comes with the UN Security Council waiting to see if Iran honors an April 28 deadline for it to halt uranium enrichment and cooperate fully with inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA's director of safeguards Ollie Heinonen has decided not to travel to Iran after being on standby...

UNO gives 30 days to Iran to suspend the uranium enrichment New York (the United Nations) - the Security Council of the United Nations gave Wednesday 30 days to Iran to suspend his activities of uranium enrichment, in an unanimously adopted declaration of his fifteen members. In this declaration, the Council calls Iran has "to take the measurements required by the Council of the governors of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (...) who are essential to establish confidence (international community) in the exclusively peaceful character of his nuclear program". It "underlines, in this respect, the particular importance of a...

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says By DON VAN NATTA Jr. Published: March 27, 2006 LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war. But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Generals and politicians have been convicted of genocide, but the UN's highest court will consider Monday whether a country - in this case Serbia - can be guilty of humanity's worst crime. The stakes potentially include billions of dollars and history's judgment. Thirteen years after Bosnia filed the case with the International Court of Justice, its lawyers will lay out their lawsuit against Serbia and Montenegro - the successor state for the defunct Yugoslavia - charging it with a premeditated attempt to destroy Bosnia's Muslim population, in whole or part. "Not since the end...

ALARM - the IAEA returns Iran in front of the Security Council of UNO VIENNA - the council of the governors of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided Saturday by vote to transmit the Iranian file to the Security Council of UNO for his suspect nuclear activities, announced the IAEA.

Revealed: Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war. Channel 4 News tonight reveals extraordinary details of George Bush and Tony Blair's pre-war meeting in January 2003 at which they discussed plans to begin military action on March 10th 2003, irrespective of whether the United Nations had passed a new resolution authorising the use of force. Channel 4 News has seen minutes from that meeting, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. The two leaders discussed the possibility of securing further UN support, but President Bush made it...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday his country would not surrender its nuclear ambitions and blasted an agreement between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to take up the case. "Those who possess stocks of nuclear arms meet together and take decisions and think that the Iranian people will submit to their decisions," the president said in a speech carried live on state television. "I tell these countries who want to violate the rights of the Iranian people that the Iranian people will not be influenced by their propaganda," he said, vowing the Islamic republic would...

Asharq Al-Awsat exclusive interview with U.N Chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis Asharq Al-Awsat, New York - Asharq Al Awsat exclusively interviews Detlev Mehlis, Head of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1595 into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. FAKHRY: Let me start, firstly, by asking you about the reasons as to why you are leaving the Investigation Commission. Are you not concerned that it might portray the wrong image about where this investigation is headed? MEHLIS: No. As I mentioned before, my leaving has nothing to do with the...

UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council held a discussion of human rights and drug trafficking problems in Myanmar on Friday after months of pushing by the United States and Britain. Some members of the council, especially China, had opposed talking about the reclusive Southeast Asian country, saying its problems did not pose a threat to international peace and security.