So Obama's plan was to "engage" the bad players like Iran and NK, and he gave a year for it to happen. He promised that if they did not come to the table that there would be "crippling" sanctions. So we know that the effort failed, and that crippling sanctions are not even in the offing through the UN. Now we have the Russians telling us that we can't even do sanctions of our own! Definitely too much power ceded to the corrupt and ineffective body that is the UN.
"Countries facing Security Council sanctions “cannot under any circumstances be the subject of one-sided sanctions imposed by one or other government bypassing the Security Council”, Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
** “The position of the United States today does not display understanding of this absolutely clear truth.”**
**Russia is in talks with the United States and other U.N. Security Council members on a fourth round of sanctions. Moscow has indicated it could support broader sanctions but has stressed they must not harm the Iranian people."**http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100513/ts_nm/us_russia_iran_us_1
Considering how much success the U.S had in dealing with Iran without sanctions, it was worth a shot.
In regards to Iran, that’s what I said a year ago; but now, as expected by most, it has not worked, AND Obama’s “crippling” sanctions are not going to occur. I’m wondering what Obama will do now. My sense is, nothing, cede control and responsibility to the UN, knowing that they will keep sending nasty-grams to Ahmadinijad while Iran goes nuclear. Israel is the wild-card of course, and it will be even more interesting to watch this admin, given their soft support for that country, once Israel does something.
and we have this today: Libya Wins Seat on UN Human Rights Council
May 13, 2010 - 2:28 PM | by: Ben Evansky
Libya - a country with well documented ties to terrorist organizations and an abysmal human rights record has been elected by a majority of its fellow U.N. members to serve on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. In a secret ballot Libya received 155 votes and will serve a three year term. To get elected each country needed to get 97 votes to assure itself a place on the U.N. body. There are a total of 192 countries that make up the United Nations.
Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan created the Human Rights Council in 2006 to replace the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission which he said had a “credibility deficit.” But according to a press release from UN Watch , a Geneva based non-government organization, "The Geneva-based council gives dominance to Africa and Asia, whose 26 seats grant them an automatic majority. Western Europe and North America together are represented by seven countries.
The UN Watch press release says “to date, the council has adopted 40 censure resolutions, of which 33 have targeted Israel. The only other governments to be criticized were Burma, Guinea, Honduras, North Korea and Sudan. Out of nine emergency sessions that criticized countries, six were against Israel.”
and we have this today: Libya Wins Seat on UN Human Rights Council
May 13, 2010 - 2:28 PM | by: Ben Evansky
Libya - a country with well documented ties to terrorist organizations and an abysmal human rights record has been elected by a majority of its fellow U.N. members to serve on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. In a secret ballot Libya received 155 votes and will serve a three year term. To get elected each country needed to get 97 votes to assure itself a place on the U.N. body. There are a total of 192 countries that make up the United Nations.
Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan created the Human Rights Council in 2006 to replace the discredited U.N. Human Rights Commission which he said had a “credibility deficit.” But according to a press release from UN Watch , a Geneva based non-government organization, "The Geneva-based council gives dominance to Africa and Asia, whose 26 seats grant them an automatic majority. Western Europe and North America together are represented by seven countries.
The UN Watch press release says “to date, the council has adopted 40 censure resolutions, of which 33 have targeted Israel. The only other governments to be criticized were Burma, Guinea, Honduras, North Korea and Sudan. Out of nine emergency sessions that criticized countries, six were against Israel.”
Can we please just kick the UN out of the country?
***In a secret ballot Libya received 155 votes ***
How does this even happen?
This is a gem as well
The UN Watch press release says “to date, the council has adopted 40 censure resolutions, of which 33 have targeted Israel. The only other governments to be criticized were Burma, Guinea, Honduras, North Korea and Sudan. Out of nine emergency sessions that criticized countries, six were against Israel.”
In a related issue, Iran is also taking a position on the UN’s Women’s Rights Council. This is being sold as an Obama success because Iran originally wanted to be on Human Rights council instead of Libya . . . that takes some serious ethical gymnastics. But hey, I guess women are only part of humanity, not all of it, so OK.
I heard a former ambassador to the UN describe how its a different world in the UN.
That ALL parties there are treated as equals, that violations and troubles in there countries do not matter, that when they walk in that door, all are equal.
So its just another one in the seat, just because they have huge human rights violations does not mean they can be on the committee for human rights.
To hear him speak about it, and describe it was very surreal.
“So Obama’s plan was to “engage” the bad players like Iran and NK, and he gave a year for it to happen.”
We, in this country, has seriously got to move past this short term attitude. Nothing happens in the space of a single year on the international stage. Changes in international politics take long periods of time, absent some gigantic forcing function like a world war.