We are greatful to the Secretary-General for his briefing. His participation, his assessments and his authoritative words about the situation that has developed are very significant. We agree with him that there are many wounds in the Middle East. However, most important, currently the deepest wound…
Frankly speaking, I think all of us have seen everything for ourselves. Unfortunately, the failure to adopt draft resolution S/2018/322 really is a litmus test says a great deal and leaves us extremely apprehensive. We proposed a very innocuous draft resolution, which is moreover virtually a complet…
We listened carefully to what the Permanent Representative of Sweden has just said. To be candid, we are somewhat puzzled by his statement, because the draft resolution that we submitted (S/2018/322) is, in essence, based on the same idea as the draft submitted yesterday by the Swedish delegation. I…
We too are sorry that our draft resolution (S/2018/175) was not adopted today, but at the moment neither it nor the United States draft resolution (S/2018/321) would have had any influence on the investigation of the alleged incident in Douma. Right now, that is not what they are about. There is no …
Before I speak about the draft resolution before us (S/2018/175), I would like to say that I am very happy that my British colleague is familiar with the classic works of Marxism-Leninism, although that is hardly surprising, because Marx, Engels and Lenin were frequent visitors to London — indeed, …
Today the delegation of the United States is once again trying to mislead the international
community and is taking yet another step towards confrontation by putting to a vote a draft resolution (S/2018/321) that does not enjoy the unanimous support of the members of the Security Council.
It is no…
Like my Dutch colleague and friend, I too have three points to make.
I would first like to respectfully request of my colleague Mrs. Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States, that from now on she refrain from labelling any legitimate Governments as “regimes”. Right now I am referr…
If you imagine, Mr. President, that I derive pleasure from the subject of my statement today, or from speaking at great length, you are wrong. Unfortunately, however, the situation is such that I have a lot to say today. And you will have to listen to me.
We thank Mr. De Mistura and Mr. Markram for…
Unfortunately, we heard nothing new from some of our colleagues, who continue unabashedly and unblinkingly to affirm Russia’s guilt and demand that we shed light on the incident. We too would very much like to see the truth emerge, and we hope that the further we go, the more green shoots of truth w…
On 14 March, the Security Council held an open meeting (see S/PV.8203) on a letter from the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Theresa May (S/2018/218, annex). It accused Russia, in monstrous and completely unfounded terms, of using chemical weapons on British territory. The representatives of the Uni…
Since I have not personally had the opportunity to do so yet, I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your presidency of the Security Council and to wish you every success with it. We also thank Mr. Markram for his briefing.
In view of the fact that an act of provocation involving the u…
We are grateful to you, Mr. President, for organizing today’s meeting on collective action to improve United Nations peacekeeping operations. We thank Secretary-General Guterres, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Director Fatimata Touré for their briefings.
W…
We would like to welcome you as you preside over the Council today, Sir. We also welcome Ms. Karen Pierce, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, who is now here with us. We thank Mr. Lowcock for his briefing.
The difficult humanitarian situation continues in a number of areas in Syria. Th…
I will be very brief. I would just like to inform the Council that we will be circulating something related to an item on our agenda. It is a documentary film on what is currently going on in eastern Ghouta. On the same subject, I would like to conclude my statement by reading two paragraphs from to…
I am not planning to engage in a detailed discussion with my British colleague. I have already said everything I wanted to say in my statement.
I just want to emphasize one thing, which is that we have not received a formal request, in line with the
Chemical Weapons Convention, to which we were an…
Yesterday, after the letter from the British Prime Minister (S/2018/218, annex) was circulated to the Security Council, the United Kingdom asked that closed consultations be held. It was we who asked the President of the Security Council to change the meeting format from closed consultations to an o…
We would like to thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and his detailed information on what we asked for. We particularly appreciated his words when he said that there should be only one agenda for all of us — ending this crisis.
Russia supported the Security Council’s adoption of resolution…
It is symbolic that you are presiding over the Security Council’s meeting on International Women’s Day, Madam President, and we congratulate you and all the women of the world on this holiday. We remember your Permanent Representative’s appeal for seeing as many women as possible at today’s meeting,…
We are grateful to Mr. Angelino Alfano, Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy, for his substantive briefing on the work of the OSCE and the issues on its agenda.
We have always proceeded from the assumption …
We thank Under-Secretary-General Lowcock and Under-Secretary-General Feltman for their briefings. By the way, at the outset I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask Mr. Lowcock where the United Nations is getting its evidence and data on deaths in Damascus, for instance. According t…
