Obama at the UN

To watch US President Barack Obama’s address to the United Nations, visit the UN Webcast website: http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/index.html

For a transcript, please click here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/21/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly

To know more about the UN and its work around the world, read our newly-released book: “Heroes of the United Nations: men and women who made the world a better place.” The book is available online at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-United-Nations-Andreas-Warburg/dp/0615467105). Click here for a review.

A quiet diplomacy on the Mideast peace path

Source: Washington Post | by Martin Indyk*

The current sturm und drang in U.S.-Israel relations cloaks a surprising development: President Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are beginning to develop a constructive working relationship sensitive to the legitimate concerns of the other.

President Obama debut at the United Nations

Source: YouTube

U.S. joins U.N. Human Rights Council

Source: The New York Times | By Neil MacFarquhar

The United States won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, joining a group that the Bush administration had pilloried. The controversy surrounding the 47-member body, which assesses the rights records of United Nations member states, was underscored by the General Assembly’s re-electing other nations condemned by human rights organizations for abusing their own citizens. They include Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Cameroon.

Mediterranean Union launched at summit in Paris

Source: Reuters

Leaders of 43 countries from the European Union and the Mediterranean region met in Paris on Sunday for a first summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, an initiative launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

U.N. warns attack on Iran will spark ‘fireball’ in Middle East

Source: The Telegraph | By Tim Butcher

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that a military strike on Iran to prevent it developing atomic weapons would turn the region into a “fireball”. Mohamed ElBaradei said unilateral military action, which has not been ruled out by Israel or the US, would push the Islamic republic into a “crash course” of developing nuclear weapons and threatened to resign if an attack took place.