Before I begin, I want to take a moment to honour some very important people. As we gather together in the Security Council, many around the world are preparing to gather with their families to celebrate a season of peace and generosity. Amid this celebration, we remember the men and women of our mi…
This discussion could not have come at a better time. There were reports this morning that the Houthi militants in Yemen had fired yet another missile into Saudi Arabia. According to the Houthis themselves, it was targeted at a meeting of Saudi leaders in Riyadh, in an area crowded with Government o…
I have been the proud representative of the United States at the United Nations for nearly a year now. This is the first time I have exercised the American right to veto a draft resolution in the Security Council. The exercise of the veto is not something that the United States does often. We have n…
In this meeting, I will not use the Council’s time to address where a sovereign nation might decide to put its embassy, and why we have every right to do so. Rather, I will address a more appropriate and urgent concern.
This week marks the first anniversary of the adoption of resolution 2334 (2016)…
I thank Mr. Feltman for his briefing, and Ms. Patten for her leadership and service.
As we confront issues like this one, it is important that we hear stories, and when we hear the stories, we have to imagine the faces because; otherwise these are just numbers or yet more impersonal pieces of data.…
I thank Assistant-Secretary-General Jenča and High Commissioner Al-Hussein for their briefings. I am grateful for this discussion today, because we must tell the full story of the North Korean people. Only a few of them, some of whom are with us today, have escaped to
tell the truth about their str…
This issue has become a repeated problem. We continue to think that there is a separation between peace and security and human rights, and there is not. If we go back in
history, it shows that any country that does not take care of its people ends up in conflict. We have seen that in multiple cases…
The Jewish people are a patient people. Throughout 3,000 years of civilization, foreign conquest, exile and return, Jerusalem has remained their spiritual home. For nearly
70 years, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel, despite many attempts by others to deny that reali…
I would like to begin today by expressing our heartfelt condolences to the families of the 14 Tanzanian peacekeepers who were killed and the more than 40 wounded in last night’s attack in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are horrified by that cowardly attack on those who …
I thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership in convening this meeting and for your leadership of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1718 (2006). We also appreciate Mr. Feltman’s briefing.
This is the ninth time this year that the Security Council has met in reference to North Kore…
I thank Ms. Keita for her briefing.
Every member of the Council is familiar with the horrifying statistics being produced by the violence in South Sudan. Millions of South Sudanese are facing famine and have been driven from their homes. Tens of thousands are dead, and thousands of children have be…
In a world in which the Council’s time and attention could be productively devoted to 100 different things, Russia is wasting our time. Conflicts are raging. Outlaw States are acquiring nuclear weapons. The human dignity of millions is violated every day. Brutal regimes are using chemical weapons on…
There are a few things that I think we have to realize here. I think a lot of it has do with genuineness — whether it was used or not; with the actors, whether they were to be trusted or not; with the process of how all of that played out; and where we go from there. Given that, I have a few comment…
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations gives the Council the responsibility to
“determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations ... to maintain or restore international peace and security”.
Among the greatest th…
Rule 32 of the provisional rules of procedure states that principal motions and draft resolutions shall have precedence in the order of their submission.
I would like to read out the first part of rule 32 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council, which says “Principal motions and draft resolutions shall have precedence in the order of their submission.”
My Russian friends have chosen once again to say that they go according to p…
I want to thank Ms. Nakamitsu for her briefing today.
I want to say a special word about Mr. Mulet and to thank him for being here. One look at his resume shows that he is the right man to lead the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JI…
I thank Secretary-General Guterres and the other briefers for being here today. I also thank France for its leadership on the issue and for organizing today’s discussion.
Violent extremism in the Sahel is a growing problem, and responding to this violence is more dangerous than ever. We applaud the…
Our goal in discussing the Middle East is to work on peace, security and human rights for the region. We cannot talk about stability in the Middle East without talking about Iran. That is because nearly every threat to peace and security in the Middle East is connected to Iran’s outlawed behaviour. …
I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing. We appreciate his leadership and voice in raising the alarm about the nations on the verge of famine today. The humanitarian needs in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are unprecedented. Those countries are experiencing what is being c…
