It’s one of my government’s ambitions to secure a seat for Ireland on the U.N. Security Council so that we can play an even greater role in international affairs and try to build what we all believe in, which is a world of laws.
The U.S. – the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that’s hardly even a joke. The United States has even gone so far as to veto Security Council resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. That was in the 1980s under Reagan.
In line with international law, only the U.N. Security Council could sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state are inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression.
Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not.
One of the problems with the Security Council is that there are vetoes, and they do not allow us to do what might be justified from the point of view of sanctions.
In 1991, only two years into the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice suddenly left her powerful job as the top Russia expert on the National Security Council and went back to California – to get a life.
The United States must also continue to push the United Nations Security Council for strong action to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In the meantime, it is our job to take meaningful steps to eliminate the threats posed by Iran.
In the case of non-signatory states like Syria and Iraq, the U.N. Security Council is mandated with enforcement of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdictions in matters of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
I think there has to be greater heed paid by the Security Council members to military advice.
In Rwanda that genocide happened because the international community and the Security Council refused to give, again, another 5000 troops which would have cost, I don’t know, maybe fifty, a hundred, million dollars.
When you look at the Lebanon-Syria border, you see a porous border despite the fact that you have a U.N. Security Council decision that speaks of an embargo on weapons transfers to Hezbollah.
The U.N. Security Council did not to condemn the Qana massacre, due to the U.S. veto.
U.N. Security Council resolutions are only as effective as their enforcement.
There’s been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council. The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.
Dick Clarke, who was head of counter-terrorism in the National Security Council, pushed constantly for the Principals Committee, which is the key national security group of top officials to take up the issue of terrorism.
Pages: 1 2
