Showing posts with label Ban Ki-moon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ban Ki-moon. Show all posts

Friday, October 9, 2015

Washington and its “Collateral Damage”




08.10.2015 Author: Vladimir Odintsov
 
 
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Less than a week ago US Air Force bombed a hospital in Afghanistan that was run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). At the time of the bombing there were 105 patients and local employees, along with 80 members of MSF personnel in the hospital located in the town of Kunduz. A number of media sources reported that US military command was well aware of the coordinates of the hospital, however, even when the local staff contacted a NATO representative in Kabul and informed him of the attack, bombs were still hitting the area for more than an hour.

On the same day a NATO spokesman described the incident as “side effect” of the US military operation, that allegedly was not targeting the hospital, hence it was “accidentally hit.” Nevertheless, the official failed to provide journalist with details on what exactly the US aircraft was supposed to destroy. After all, according to MSF personnel, at the time of bombing Taliban militants were nowhere near the hospital

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein on October 3 urged the international community to carry out a full investigation of the air strikes in question. And if it is to established that the hospital was struck intentionally, it would be only logical to label this act as a war crime. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the hospital and its medical staff are protected by international law, and those responsible should answer for this bombing. There’s still hope that war the war criminals behind this attack won’t be able to escape the prosecution easily.
However, one should be reminded this was not the first case of US military committing crimes in Afghanistan and the neighbouring countries. Yet, all investigations of such “acts” have fallen short of punishing those responsible, which only leads to a sharp increase in the level of recklessness shown by Pentagon and US intelligence servicemen.









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Sunday, February 23, 2014

UN humanitarian chief demands Syria aid access

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VOA News

UN Orders Syria Humanitarian Aid Access


The United Nations Security Council votes on resolution on humanitarian aid for Syria at U.N. headquarters in New York, Feb. 22, 2014.
The United Nations Security Council votes on resolution on humanitarian aid for Syria at U.N. headquarters in New York, Feb. 22, 2014.
The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution on Syria's humanitarian crisis, demanding that both sides in the conflict provide immediate access to deliver essential aid to millions of people in desperate need.
The 15-member council united on Syria for the first time Saturday. Russia and China — which have shielded Syria's government throughout the country's three-year-long civil war — voted in favor of the resolution.
Saturday's vote does not threaten sanctions. Russia insisted that this reference be dropped from the original Western- and Arab-backed text. But it does express the council's intent to take "further steps" in the case of non-compliance.
The resolution demands immediate cross-border aid access and condemns rights abuses by the Syrian government and armed opposition groups.
It also insists that all parties immediately cease all attacks against civilians and stop the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas — including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote that the resolution should not have been necessary, because "humanitarian assistance is not something to be negotiated; it is something to be allowed by virtue of international law."
The U.N. chief said it is "profoundly shocking ... that both sides are besieging civilians as a tactic of war."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the newly adopted resolution could be "a "hinge-point in the tortured three years" of the crisis. He called it "a resolution of concrete steps to answer the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today."
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reuters

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UN humanitarian chief demands Syria aid access by reuters
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos calls for unlimited aid access to Syria's worst hit areas.

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, Amos said she had spoken to Syrian government representatives but they'd asked for more time.
SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. HUMANITARIAN CHIEF, VALERIE AMOS, SAYING:
"However,the government have agreed to a limited assessment exercise to be conducted by U.N. agencies and the Syrian authorities, which would give us some information about what is happening in the country."
Meanwhile, amateur videos from Syria posted on to a social media website - which Reuters cannot independently verify - purportedly reveal fresh fighting amid reports that 31 people were killed.
This burning car is reportedly in the Asheera neighbourhood of Homs while this amateur Homs footage shows smoke billowing from buildings amid sounds of heavy gunfire.
This footage, apparently from Damascus, purports to show a group of protesters chanting anti-regime slogans outside the captal's Russian embassy.
The resumption of the heavy shelling follows a few days of relative calm during which Amos visited Homs and said part of the city had been completely destroyed.
UN and Arab League evnoy Kofi Annan is due to arrive in Damascus on Saturday to try to calm the year-old conflict.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters
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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

UN Withdraws Its Invitation for Iran to Join Syria Peace Talks



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Nightly News   |  January 20, 2014

Sanctions and Syria: Iran’s step forward — and back

While Iran was rewarded for limiting its nuclear enrichment program, the country’s invitation to partake in UN-led Syria peace talks was revoked.

 Video Transcript
>>> the federal government said something today about iran that we don't hear very often. they said that iran has taken, quote, concrete actions that represent an important step forward. this came after iran moved to scale back its nuclear program , and the u.s. and europe started to lift some sanctions as part of that interim agreement . we get the story tonight from nbc's andrea mitchell .
>> reporter: the seal of approval came from u.n. weapons inspectors today. disconnecting the centrifuges producing iran 's high-grade 20% enriched uranium . fuel that can easily be upgraded to power a nuclear weapon .
>> everything going as planned. the 20% enrichment has been stopped.
>> reporter: iran has complied by limiting its uranium enrichment to lower levels, granting full access to u.n. inspectors diluting current uranium stockpiles. halting construction on a separate plutonium plant. within hours, europe and washington lifted some of the sanctions that have cripple iran 's economy, permitting some oil exports, imports of auto and airplane parts, and trade in gold and other precious metals .
>> the suspension of these sanctions will enter into force today.
>> reporter: as expected, israel's prime minister, netanyahu, said today, iran 's entire program should be shut down. and now comes the hard part, a final agreement requiring iran to disclose all its nuclear secrets.
>> it's going to have to answer basic questions about did iran work on nuclear weapons in the past, and do some of those efforts continue.
>> reporter: today's breakthrough came 33 years to the today after the american diplomats were freed. now iran 's new president rouhani offers hope of a new beginning, unless rouhani is blocked by hard liners.
>> a major open question is whether president rouhani can actually implement any deal inside iran .
>> reporter: or unless the deal is blocked by its many critics in congress. what iran is cooperating on the nuclear issue, it is still arming president assad. so after intense pressure from the u.s., tonight the u.n. has withdrawn its invitation to iran to take part in peace talks this week on syria. the first talk since the war started more than two years ago. brian?
>> andrea mitchell in our d.c. newsroom tonight, thanks.

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United Nations withdraws Iran invitation to save Syria peace talks

Iran was stopped from attending long-awaited Syrian peace talks last night after an extraordinary last-minute invitation almost led to the breakdown of the whole process.




The United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, had shocked the United States, its western allies and the Syrian opposition by announcing that Iran would attend the talks, starting on Wednesday.
Iran is the Syrian regime's most important sponsor, and the move was also welcomed by Russia, which said Iran's absence would be an "unforgivable mistake".
But the opposition Syrian National Coalition, which had only reluctantly agreed to its western backers' demands it attend after a vote on Saturday, immediately said it would pull out.
It gave Mr Ban until last night to withdraw the offer if Iran did not immediately promise to withdraw its forces from Syria and agree to the formation of a transitional government, as agreed in a previous round of talks in Geneva in June 2012.
When Iran refused to do so, Mr Ban was forced to backtrack. "He continues to urge Iran to join the global consensus behind the Geneva communique," his spokesman said. "Given that it has chosen to remain outside that basic understanding, he has decided that the one-day Montreux gathering will proceed without Iran's participation."

The Montreux part of the talks will be attended by a Syrian delegation led by the Assad regime's foreign minister and the Coalition representing the rebels, as well as ministers from an array of states supporting either side in the conflict, including Russia, the United States and Britain.
Talks will then resume in Geneva on Friday, with direct negotiations taking place between the two Syrian sides conducted in closed-door session by the UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.

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Syria talks: Iran and Russia angry over invitation withdrawal

Tehran says UN's rescinding of invite is deplorable while Moscow says Iran's absence could jeopardise peace talks
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov
Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the UN's withdrawal of Iran's invitation to Syrian peace talks was a mistake, but not a catastrophe. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
Bashar al-Assad's key international allies in Moscow and Tehran have reacted angrily to the UN's decision to rescind Iran's invitation to this week's peace talks on the crisis in Syria.
The UN hastily withdrew its surprise invitation after pressure from the US and a threat that the Syrian opposition would boycott the talks.
The build-up to the talks, which are due to start in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday, is being overshadowed by Iran's non-attendance, and new evidence showing the Syrian government has been involved in the systematic killing of thousands of political detainees.
Iran, which is accused of providing military and financial backing to the Assad government, said the decision to withdraw its invitation was deplorable.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who helped broker the talks with his US counterpart, John Kerry, said the UN move was a mistake. While it was not a catastrophe, it made the slim prospect of an agreement less likely, he said.
Speaking at his annual press conference in Moscow, Lavrov said Iran's presence at the event would have given it more chance of succeeding.
Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking to reporters in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat, said it was regrettable that the UN general secretary had rescinded the invitation and that Tehran had only accepted it reluctantly in the first place.
"Unfortunately, Ban Ki-moon came under pressure after extending an invitation to Iran," Zarif said, according to the semi-official Isna news agency. "We were not eager to participate in the first place and had only decided to attend because we were invited."

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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

UN Sec'y Gen.: National Sovereignty Is a Gift of the United Nations

The New American

Written by 

On September 11, the United Nations reasserted that it believes it has the exclusive and undeniable right to determine when a people is worthy of sovereignty and when the UN must step in and rule for them.
At an informal meeting of the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared the international body’s continuing commitment to protecting populations of member states from suffering under regimes that fail to “fulfill their obligations under the rule of law.” This includes Syria, Libya, and anywhere else in the world that isn't toeing the one-world-government line.
Societies, said Ban, must “embrace diversity” or face the intervention of regional and international bodies that will step in to “protect and empower” the people living under the offending regime.
In order to impose its will and enforce its vision of “diversity,” the UN will prevent the governments of member states from passing laws, programs, and policies that prohibit the establishment of a UN-approved body of law.
Preventing governments from opposing the UN is a significant step toward the achievement of the UN’s ultimate aim: permanent aggregation of all national sovereignty into one global entity under the rule of globalists bureaucrats. Ban addressed this issue in his statement on September 11:
Prevention may sound abstract, but it is very concrete and specific. It means, among many things, that States translate obligations and standards set out in international law, notably international humanitarian and human rights law, into policies, programmes, laws and institutions that protect and empower their people.
This principle underlying this drive to force nations to, as U.S. UN Ambassador Samantha Power (shown) said, give up a “pinch of sovereignty” in exchange for the United Nation’s version of peace and prosperity is known as Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
Power, it must be noted, played a significant role in the development of R2P. Her influence on President Obama and his nationally televised address on Syria was recognized by National Review Online. “This was a Samantha Power speech,” wrote Stanley Kurtz, referring to President Obama’s call for American intervention in Syria.
Americans committed to the maintaining our Republic, our Constitution, and our right to determine our own laws, regulations, and policies must become familiar with the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and the extraordinary lengths the UN will go to to impose its provisions.
In an address given in last September, the UN secretary-general promoted the global shadow government’s ultimate goal of eradicating national sovereignty by way of the R2P policy.
Agreed to by the UN General Assembly at a summit of world leaders in 2005, R2P purports to grant the global government power to decide whether individual nations are properly exercising their sovereignty.
UN literature describes R2P as the concept that holds "states responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.”
That is to say, if the UN determines that a national government is not voluntarily conforming to the UN's idea of safety, then the “international community” will impose its will by force, all for the protection of that nation’s citizens.
Lest anyone believe that the globalists at the UN are simply pacifists whose desire is to meekly encourage regimes to treat their people kindly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took a more forceful posture at the conference held at the UN headquarters in New York:
We all agree that sovereignty must not be a shield behind which States commit grave crimes against their people. But achieving prevention and protection can be difficult. In recent years, we have shown how good offices, preventive diplomacy, mediation, commissions of inquiry and other peaceful means can help pull countries back from the brink of mass violence.
However, when non-coercive measures fail or are considered inadequate, enforcement under Chapter VII will need to be considered by the appropriate intergovernmental bodies. This includes carefully crafted sanctions and, in extreme circumstances, the use of force.
Chapter VII of the UN Charter authorizes the Security Council to use force in the face of a threat to peace or aggression, taking “such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security.” As there is currently no UN military, all such interventions are carried out by the national armed forces of member nations.
Faithfully, the United States, as the chief financial engine of the international body, has not only signed on to promote the Responsibility to Protect scheme, but President Obama has established a federal agency to ensure that it is executed effectively.
The agency is the White House Atrocities Prevention Board (APB), which was headed by Samantha Power until she was confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the UN.
Exercising the powers he created for himself in Executive Order 13606, President Barack Obama demonstrated his support for the R2P program when he established the Atrocities Prevention Board.


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Saturday, August 31, 2013

UN Chemical Inspection Underway Expected To Be Wrapping Things Up By Saturday

UN Wrapping Up Syria Chemical Inspection Early

 
U.N. weapons inspectors headed out for one final day of investigations after a delayed start this morning, as the United States signaled it is ready to launch a military campaign against the Syrian regime on its own.
The U.N. team was seen leaving their Damascus hotel this morning, only to turn back moments later. Journalists in Syria's capital reported heavy government shelling in nearby rebel-controlled suburbs but the U.N. team got underway around noon local time.
White House Says Syria Is Not Iraq
Traveling with the U.N. convoy this morning, the BBC reporter in Damascus tweeted that the inspectors unexpectedly visited a military hospital instead of the sites of the reported Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack.
The U.N. team plans to leave the country Saturday morning, one day ahead of schedule, and will report immediately to U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.
While the international community awaits the results from the U.N. investigation, Washington is regrouping after losing British support Thursday night. Dealing a major blow to its stalwart ally, the British House of Commons voted down a motion authorizing military action in Syria.


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UN team tour stricken Syria areas, activists say

The head of UN inspectors’ team, Professor Ake Sellstrom, second right, and Angela Kane, right, the representative on the United Nations for Disarmament Issues, watch as the UN inspectors’ team leaves the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, Syria, August 28, 2013. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleaded for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict, even as world powers appeared to be moving toward punitive military strikes against President Bashar Assad's regime for what the United States and its allies say was a deadly chemical weapons attack. Syria has denied it was behind the alleged attack. (AP Photo)
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Associated Press
 
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Activists said U.N. inspectors investigating suspected poison gas attacks toured stricken areas for a third day Thursday, ahead of a weekend departure from Syria that heightens the possibility of punitive strikes from Western countries against Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama said he has not decided how the U.S. would respond to the Aug. 21 attacks near Damascus that, according to the group Doctors Without Borders, killed 355 people.
However, Obama signaled Wednesday that the U.S. is moving toward a punitive strike, saying he has "concluded" that Assad's regime is behind the attacks and that there "need to be international consequences."
Both Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were trying to shore up domestic political support Thursday for possible military action.
The Obama administration was planning a teleconference briefing Thursday on Syria for leaders of the House and Senate and national security committees, U.S. officials and congressional aides said.
Cameron convened Parliament for an emergency meeting to vote on possible international action against Syria. Cameron promised he would not go to war until the U.N. weapons team has had a chance to report its findings.
In Vienna, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he spoke to Obama a day earlier about ways of expediting the U.N. investigation.
U.N. chemical weapons experts who are investigating …
Ban said the U.N. team is to leave Syria on Saturday, and suggested that the Western powers hold off on any decisions until the inspectors have presented their findings.
Ban said he told Obama the U.N. investigators "should be allowed to continue their work as mandated by the member states and I told him that we will surely share our information and our analysis."


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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Ban Ki-moon on Syria: Give Peace a Chance, Give Diplomacy a Chance, Stop Fighting and Start Talking







Published on Aug 28, 2013
08/28/2013
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleaded Wednesday for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict, even as world powers appeared to be moving toward punitive military strikes against President Bashar Assad.
Ban said Wednesday a United Nation team investigating the alleged chemical attack must be given time to establish the facts.
Syria has denied it was behind the alleged attack and challenged Washington to present proof to back up its accusations
Ban urged a peaceful resolution to Syria's civil war. "Here in the Peace Palace, let us say: Give peace a chance. Give diplomacy a chance. Stop fighting and start talking," Ban said.
Ban was speaking in the Great Hall of Justice at the Peace Palace in The Hague, which is marking its 100th anniversary.
The timing of the celebrations in The Hague was uncomfortable. The Peace Palace opened its doors in 1913 as a venue for peaceful resolution of conflicts and currently houses the United Nations' International Court of Justice, but Washington is building support for a military attack on Syria — possibly without U.N. backing.


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