As this is the first time I personally take the floor this month, I would like to congratulate you, Madam President, on assuming your new role. I would like to join my Peruvian colleague in thanking the Governments of Myanmar and of Bangladesh, but also our Kuwaiti colleague, for all the excellent a…
I thank the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for his briefing. I also thank the other two speakers for their statements.
I think that it is obvious that the ongoing violence on Gaza’s borders has made the past weeks particula…
I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this debate today. It is clear that there is a lot of interest in the Chamber, and that a lot of us are wrestling with common challenges, while we all have very similar hopes and aspirations for what might be done in this area. While I therefore take Mr. Pol…
It is an honour to have Their Excellencies the Vice-President and the Foreign Minister of Colombia with us today.
On behalf of the British people and Government, I too would like to begin by expressing my condolences to our colleagues of Côte d’Ivoire, to the family and friends of Mr. Tanoh-Boutcho…
I will be brief. I was asked a number of questions by the Russian Ambassador. I have nothing to add to what I said in relation to the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that has just been published and the way in which the samples were taken. I have nothing to …
I would like to thank the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, who briefed us on the findings of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). On behalf of the United Kingdom, I would also like to thank the OPCW and its staff. The Security Council invited us to keep it upd…
Before I start, if I may make a request of the Secretariat — it would be very helpful, I think, for the Council to have either a
briefing or a brief account of where the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-finding Mission and the United Nations Department of Safety and Securit…
I welcome the new Special Envoy and thank him for his briefing. I also thank Mr. Lowcock for his assessment and welcome our Yemeni colleagues.
It is a desperate situation and it is clear, as the Special Envoy set out, that it can be resolved, ultimately, only through a political solution. I think w…
As a number of speakers have noted today, the Charter of the United Nations makes clear that the United Nations was established to protect the dignity and worth of the human person. We therefore join our other colleagues in thanking you, Mr. President, for convening today’s debate.
I emphatically a…
I think it is obvious why we voted against the draft resolution. We support completely what the French representative laid out about next steps and we will work tirelessly to that objective, along with partners on the Council.
The Russian Ambassador referred to myths. These are not our myths. The w…
I should like to respond to the remarks made by the Ambassador of Bolivia about the United Kingdom.
We have no doubt about the sovereignty of the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and surrounding maritime areas. Successive British Governments have made …
These are uncertain times and today we deal with exceptional circumstance. Acting with our American and French allies, in the early
hours of this morning the United Kingdom conducted coordinated, targeted and precise strikes to degrade Al-Assad’s chemical weapons capability and deter their future u…
The Secretary- General has presented a catalogue of danger in the Middle East, including Gaza, Yemen and Iraq. It is no disrespect to those issues that today, like other speakers, I will concentrate on Syria. The United Kingdom will be ready to put its shoulder to the wheel on those other issues whe…
I sincerely thank our Bolivian colleague for his briefing on the work of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1540 (2004). We welcome the new Coordinators. At the outset, I would like to state that we were very pleased to have been paired with Equatorial Guinea in terms …
I thank Foreign Minister Coulibaly for taking time to join us today. I should like to join colleagues in thanking the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for his briefing and my Swedish colleague for his report and the expeditious work of his Committee.
Like other speakers, we condemn t…
I will be brief. In the Consultations Room just now, Mr. President, you and the representative of Sweden made valiant attempts at a compromise. We all appreciate what is at stake and thank you for your and Sweden’s efforts.
But, fundamentally, the United Kingdom could not vote for the Russian text …
As I have taken the floor once today already, I will be brief. With regard to Karl Marx, I think he must be turning in his grave to see what the country that was founded on many of his precepts is doing in the name of supporting Syria by condoning the use of chemical weapons on Syrian territory.
We…
This is a sad day for the Security Council; it is a sad day for the cause of universal norms and standards; and it is a sad day for the non-proliferation regime. But, above all, it is a very sad day for the people of Douma, who now are without the protection that the international system was set up …
I wanted to take the floor because we are at an important point in this region. I also want to welcome the Special Representative of the Secretary-General back to the Security Council and, through him, to thank the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the C…
I apologize for taking the floor again, but I want to clarify something. The Russian Ambassador’s English is far too good for him not to have understood me when I spoke on 5 April (see S/PV.8224). The investigation of the Salisbury incident that is under way is an independent police investigation, a…
