Challenging the UN’s darker side

Source: The Boston Globe | by Hillel C. Neuer

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, now eight months in office, is proving that his courteous manner should not be mistaken for lack of resolve. The Korean diplomat’s administration has spoken out for the victims of Darfur, confronted Sri Lanka over the killings of aid workers, and acted to establish the international tribunal on the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon. Quietly but firmly, Ban is helping to confirm the UN’s indispensable role in the world.

UN opens further talks with Iran

Source: BBC News

Senior UN officials are holding a third round of talks in Tehran to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme. In July, the two sides announced a two-month arrangement aimed at clearing up outstanding questions and giving the IAEA better access to nuclear sites.

Under threat of further UN sanctions, Iran appears anxious to co-operate and has kept to the timetable it agreed with the UN, a BBC correspondent says.

UN commemorates 4th anniversary of Baghdad attack

Source: UN News Center

United Nations staff members across the globe today solemnly commemorated the fourth anniversary of the bombing at Baghdad’s Canal Hotel, where nearly two dozen people were killed and scores more injured in the deadliest attack against the world body’s civilian personnel in history.

In Addis Ababa, Baghdad, Bangkok, Geneva, Nairobi, New York, Santiago, Vienna and other locations, staff members gathered in remembrance of the 19 August 2003 truck bomb attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which took the lives of 22 and wounded more than 150. Among those killed was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq and head of the UN mission in the country.

Think-tank: EU treaty to affect Britain’s UN seat

Source: Daily Mail | by Jane Merrick

Britain will have to give up its seat on the UN Security Council, a leading European think-tank has warned. The Skeptika group says the fine print of the new EU treaty will force the surrender of a vital diplomatic power.

The Foreign Office claims it is a ‘myth’ that the UK will lose its seat to an EU representative. But Skeptika has uncovered a paragraph in the treaty, signed by Tony Blair in one of his last acts in office, which it says will eventually force the move.

In Africa, Beyond Humanitarianism

Source: www.washingtonpost.com’s Think Tank Town | By Princeton N. Lyman and Patricia Dorff

Africa has risen steadily in importance to the United States in recent years. Traditionally, Africa has been thought of primarily as an object of humanitarian concern. That perception has been highlighted by popular figures, such as Bono, Bob Geldof, George Clooney and others, focusing public attention on Africa’s poverty, conflicts and major diseases. Africa has further captured worldwide attention due to the conflict in Darfur. Because the United States has judged the Sudanese government’s campaign in the region to be genocide, the conflict has taken on enormous moral importance.

America’s U.N. Envoy Takes a New Approach

Source: The New York Sun | by Benni Avni

America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, is attempting to establish a détente in Washington’s age-old battle to clean up Turtle Bay. Perhaps, as the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Saud al Faisal, said in a different context, Mr. Khalilzad has been too “influenced” by the United Nations.

Unlike his predecessor, John Bolton, Mr. Khalilzad seems to see the place as a real player on the world stage, and he believes it can help America in such places as Iraq.

WTO: Europe warns US on Iran sanctions

Source: Financial Times | by Daniel Dombey, Javier Blas, and Francesco Guerrera

European governments are warning Congress that US legislation aimed at Iran could hit European energy groups, undermine transatlantic unity on Tehran’s nuclear programme and provoke a dispute at the World Trade Organisation.

Diplomats from France, Germany and the UK, among other countries, have stepped up a lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill against moves that would mandate sanctions on energy companies that invested more than $20m (€14.6m, £9.9m) in Iran.

UN to send peacekeepers to Darfur

Source: International Herald Tribune | by John Sullivan

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to authorize the deployment of up to 26,000 peacekeepers to try to stop the violence in Darfur in western Sudan, where approximately 200,000 people have been killed in four years of conflict.

The resolution will create the world’s largest peacekeeping operation, costing about $2 billion in its first year and drawing on military and police forces from the African Union and the United Nations, a UN spokeswoman said.