United Nations gives strong support to Lebanon's political independence

The UN Security Council has reaffirmed its strong support for Lebanon's political independence following a report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who said "crises in the region continue to pose a risk to the stability" of the country.

In his report circulated this week, Guterres pointed to the sudden resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri while he was in Saudi Arabia, which was later rescinded. He also reiterated his call to all Lebanese "to cease their involvement in the Syrian crisis."

A statement by the council after closed briefings Tuesday by the UN peacekeeping chief and senior U.N. official in Lebanon backed efforts by Lebanese authorities "to restore normal functioning institutions" and hold legislative elections on May 6.

India's Dalveer Bhandari wins second term at ICJ after UK pulls out of race

India's nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was re-elected to the last seat of the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.

Bhandari received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all the 15 votes in the Security Council after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The elections were held after the United Kingdom, in a dramatic turn of events, withdrew out of the race for the Hague-based ICJ, thus paving the way for Bhandari's re-election to the prestigious world court.

Bhandari and Britain's Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election to the ICJ.

The permanent members of the Security Council -- the US, Russia, France, and China -- were understood to have been throwing their weight behind Greenwood. Britain is the fifth permanent member of the Security Council.

In a dramatic turn of events, the British Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, wrote identical letters to the presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, before the two chambers were scheduled to meet at 3 pm (local time) for the 12th round of voting.

Read out simultaneously by both the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council, Rycroft said that UK's candidate Judge Christopher Greenwood had decided to withdraw from the election to the 15-membered ICJ. He along with Bhandari were seeking re-election for the nine-year term.
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No contradiction in blocking BRICS resolution on Masood Azhar: China

China has asserted that there is no contradiction in its policy to block India's bid to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN, saying the BRICS declaration was against terror groups and not individuals, Pakistani media on Thursday reported.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to impose a ban on the JeM chief under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council.

The latest technical hold by China came on November 2 when it blocked another proposal by the US, France and the UK to list Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN. Beijing had blocked such a move in February this year.

Speaking to a delegation of Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors in Beijing this week, Counselor and Asia Division Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chen Feng said vetoing a resolution against Azhar after the BRICS declaration against terror outfits did not reflect a contradiction in China's policy as BRICS members have not entered into any such agreement.
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ISIS executed 741 civilians during Mosul battle: UN

The Islamic State group executed 741 civilians in the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, the UN said today, accusing the jihadists of perpetrating "international crimes" during the nine-month military campaign.

A total of 2,521 civilians were killed, mostly by IS attacks, during the fight between IS and the internationally- backed Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) that ended in July, the UN rights office said in a report.

"Those responsible must answer for their heinous crimes", the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a statement.

Mosul, Iraq's second city, was captured by IS in 2014 and became the capital of the group's self-styled "caliphate" in the country.

Following IS's defeat in the city, the rights office said it had compiled witness testimony documenting "mass abductions of civilians, the use of thousands as human shields, the intentional shelling of civilian residences, and indiscriminate targeting of civilians trying to flee the city".

More than 800,000 people were displaced by the fighting, the report said.

The rights office also called for investigations into alleged violations committed by the ISF and their allies, including militia groups.

The report "recorded 461 civilian deaths as a result of airstrikes during the most intensive phase of the ISF-led offensive from 19 February", the UN said in a statement, noting that it was impossible to establish responsibility for the strikes "in almost all cases".
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Trump is going to make a huge mistake on the Iran deal

President Trump is expected this week to refuse to recertify that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, a milestone diplomatic agreement that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Mr Trump seems poised to take that action despite the reality that Iran is not violating the terms of the deal. In fact, his key national security cabinet officers have publicly said that Iran is meeting its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with monitoring and verifying the deal, has issued eight reports over the past two years echoing these conclusions.

Instead, the president seems prepared to argue that the deal is no longer in the United States’ vital national security interest because of Iran’s other activities in the Middle East, including its support for terrorism, its meddling in Syria and Yemen, and its threats to Israel’s security.

The Trump administration is right that Iranian behaviour destabilises the region, but wrong when it says that such behaviour contradicts the “spirit” of the agreement and that he is therefore justified in refusing to certify Iran’s compliance. In fact, Iran’s troubling foreign policy is precisely why the deal was necessary in the first place: An Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be far more threatening to regional and global security.
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Trump to address world leaders at UN, share spotlight with Nikki Haley

When President Donald Trump takes the world stage at the United Nations for the first time this week, he will share the spotlight with his envoy Nikki Haley, who has emerged as the surprising public face of US foreign policy.

Haley, the 45-year-old former South Carolina governor, has proven to be a high-profile member of Trump’s administration, at times overshadowing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp, despite her lack of previous foreign policy experience, diplomats say.

“For the US, Nikki Haley is remarkable. It’s hard to find in the Trump administration. It’s someone who is very approachable and politically very assertive,” said a senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Syria government behind sarin gas attack in April: UN

United Nations war crimes investigators said on Wednesday they had evidence that Syrian government forces were behind the chemical attack that killed dozens of people in Khan Sheikhun in April.

In the first UN report to officially blame Damascus, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said it had gathered an "extensive body of information" showing the Syrian airforce was behind the horrific sarin gas attack on April 4.

"All evidence available leads the Commission to conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe Syrian forces dropped an aerial bomb dispersing sarin in Khan Sheikhun," the report said.

At least 83 people, a third of them children, were killed and nearly 300 wounded in the attack on Khan Sheikhun, a town in the opposition-held northern province of Idlib, it said.

Other sources have given a death toll of at least 87.

Syria's government has denied involvement and claims it no longer possesses chemical weapons after a 2013 agreement under which it pledged to surrender its chemical arsenal.

A fact-finding mission by the UN's chemical watchdog, the OPCW, concluded earlier this year that sarin gas was used in the attack, but did not assign blame.
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US informs UN of intention to withdraw from Paris Climate Accord

The US has informed the UN that it will withdraw from the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement but would still take part in negotiations to protect its own interests.

The formal notification to the UN comes two months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the accord, fulfilling a longtime campaign promise and rejecting appeals from other world leaders to stay in the deal.

But according to the terms of the pact, the US cannot fully withdraw until November 4, 2020, which would be a day after the next presidential election is held in the US. This means the next US president can still rejoin the agreement.

Reacting to the US' notification, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged it to re-engage with the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The Paris climate deal aims to prevent the Earth from heating up by 2 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial age. The US is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China.

Trump drew international condemnation in June when he first announced the US intention to withdraw. He said the deal "punished" the US and would cost millions of American jobs.

The State Department yesterday said that the US submitted a communication to the UN, in its capacity as a depositary for the Paris agreement, regarding the US intent to withdraw from it as soon as it is eligible to do so.
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Gulf states being stubborn, UN should step in: Qatar amid diplomatic crisis

Qatar's foreign minister on Thursday accused Gulf neighbors and Egypt of "stubbornness" in their ongoing diplomatic dispute and said the United Nations should step in to help resolve the crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York to discuss tensions after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5.

The four countries accuse Qatar of backing extremism and have imposed sanctions against Doha in what the foreign minister said was a "serious violation of international law."

"There is a role for the Security Council and for the General Assembly and all the United Nations mechanisms, because of course the violations have continued," the foreign minister told reporters after his meeting with Guterres.

"We are seeing from the other side of the conflict this stubbornness without even taking any forthcoming step to solve this problem," he said.

Last month Al-Thani met with several Security Council members to lobby for support, but the council and Guterres have repeatedly stressed that a solution should be found among regional partners.

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Why did sanctions against North Korea's missile program fail?

North Korea’s successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), allegedly with the capability to hit Alaska, is the latest in a series of significant advances for the country’s missile program.

North Korea has been seeking to develop long-range missile technology for over 20 years. For much of this period, the international community has been trying to stop that from happening.

My research on how states illegally obtain missile technologies and my experience conducting outreach related to UN sanctions give me some insight into the methods North Korea used to make illicit procurements and the limitations in using technology-based sanctions to prevent them.

Technology-based sanctions
In 2006 – following North Korea’s first nuclear test – the UN Security Council prohibited the “supply, sale or transfer” of “items, materials, equipment, goods and technology” that could contribute to the country’s missile program.

Efforts to prevent North Korea’s acquisition of missile technology by certain nations – notably the United States – were underway by the 1990s. However, the UN sanctions went further by placing standardized legal requirements on all states to prevent the development of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction programs.

These sanctions are “universal” – obligatory for all states around the world. However, each nation is responsible for implementation within its borders. Missile, nuclear and military technologies are regulated through national export control systems. Exports of certain goods and technologies need to be granted an export license by the government. This allows governments to do a risk assessment on transactions and minimize the diversions to undesirable uses, such as WMD programs or human rights abuses.
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Chemical weapons: Key players in Syria swap denials and accusations

The Khan Sheikhoun attack of April 4 2017, which killed dozens and injured hundreds, drew a response in the form of targeted US missile strikes on a Syrian airbase. As far as the West is concerned, it was clearly just the latest in a long line of chemical weapon attacks authorised by the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad; a recent French intelligence report lists seven sarin attacks which it either presumes or is confident were ordered by the regime – this in addition to some 22 incidents of chlorine use.

All this is broadly in keeping with public statements and declassified reports released by other Western states. From a Western perspective, the Assad regime has for years now played cat-and-mouse with the international community, using chemical weapons to kill, terrorise, demoralise and displace both militants and civilians. He has attempted to employ such weapons below the threshold that would trigger greater Western intervention, or the threshold which might lead Russia or another ally to withdraw vital support.

These thresholds are neither clear nor stationary – and Damascus has hedged its bets time and time again on the benefits of use. This included the use of chemical weapons at, and in the run up to, the 2013 Ghouta attack. It was also reflected in Assad’s decision to secretly retain sarin stockpiles when it was forced to give up its chemical weapons in the aftermath of the Ghouta massacre. From this perspective, the persistent use of chlorine by the regime also fits the pattern.

The Syrian and Russian governments have consistently publicly denied that the Syrian government has ever employed chemical weapons, either before or after it declared and destroyed some 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and decommissioned some 27 production facilities. But, more than that, Russian and Syrian officials still challenge the Western narrative by questioning whether the attacks in question were staged, carried out by rebels or – as in the latest case – a consequence of rebel groups stockpiling sarin supplies of their own. They argue that pinning chemical weapon use on Assad is a Western tactic to undermine his regime – and to leverage public support for Western intervention.
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Migrant crisis: 100,000 have crossed Mediterranean for Europe since Jan: UN

More than 100,000 migrants and refugees have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, and 2,247 have died trying, the UN said today.

Between January 1 and July 3, more than 85,000 migrants landed in Italy, nearly 9,300 arrived in Greece, nearly 6,500 arrived in Spain and over 270 landed in Cyprus, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

While the numbers are staggering, they remain far below last year's figures.

During the same period in 2016, 231,503 people made the crossing to Europe, with the 100,000-mark passed already in February that year.

But at that time most of the migrants were crossing from Turkey to Greece, and an EU deal with Ankara in March last year effectively hit the breaks on that movement.

So far this year, Italy has meanwhile taken in nearly 85 percent of the people crossing the Mediterranean.

Rome will on Thursday host an informal meeting of EU justice and interior ministers to discuss the migrant crisis.

Italy has been pushing for other European countries to open up their ports to rescue ships in order to share the burden.

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India welcomes UNGA move to create new counter-terrorism office

The UN General Assembly has approved the establishment of a new office to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts, a move welcomed by India as a "much awaited first step" that will align the world body with needs of the global community in the fight against the menace.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted a consensus resolution on Thursday creating the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism that will be headed by an Under-Secretary-General.

India welcomed the creation of the new UN counter- terrorism office, saying it demonstrates the importance member states place on a collective and coordinated action on terrorism, which remains the most complex threat faced by the international community.

"India believes that the creation of the Office of Counter-Terrorism Coordinator is a much awaited first step in our efforts to enhance coordination of the UN's counter- terrorism efforts," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said in the General Assembly after the resolution's adoption.

He said the office's creation "will align the UN with the changed global reality and needs of the international community" as was articulated by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kabul, where he said support to terrorism entails a high price.

Addressing reporters in Kabul, Guterres had warned that any country that supports terrorism anywhere in the world in relation to other countries, "sooner or later the price paid will be high in relation to terrorism within the country itself".

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