UN

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

Surveys consistently rank Scandinavian countries the happiest on earth. But now, even they are getting ticked off by the Palestinians.

The Trump White House is taking stock of what it sees as a solid seven days for its national security and geopolitical policies. “It's difficult to portray this as anything but a really great week," said one senior administration official on Wednesday.

It might come as news to the millions of pink-hatted anti-Trump marchers, the marauding rioters at Berkeley and Middlebury, and the anti-pipeline hippies in North Dakota, but apparently Americans’ right to protest is under threat. We know that because two "special rapporteurs on freedom of…

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with contributing editor Elliott Abrams on his recent essay, "John Kerry's Final, Harmful Insult to Israel."

A Christian pro-Israel group flooded the United Nation's cultural arm with thousands of condemnatory emails Monday, after the body passed a draft resolution last week denying Jewish and Christian ties to holy sites in Jerusalem.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with online editor Michael Warren on President Obama's UN address.

The international conference on climate change attracted thousands of delegates from almost 200 nations. The Conference of the Parties21, so named for the parties that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and had come to Paris for what was their 21st conference, came to an…

When UNESCO voted in 2011 to admit the "State of Palestine" as a member despite the fact that there is no "State of Palestine," the United States suspended paying dues to the organization. This was done in accordance with U.S. law, because Congress had forbidden paying dues to any UN organization…

The World Health Organization’s announcement last week that bacon and processed meats cause cancer may well cause an untold number of premature deaths, and The Scrapbook has a sneaking suspicion that the political overseers at the WHO would be fine with that outcome. 

By any objective measure, Russia has made a strategic decision to challenge America for dominance in the Middle East. Despite depressed global oil prices and economic sanctions intended to curb his Ukraine adventurism, Vladimir Putin is pursuing an undisguised effort to expand Moscow’s military…

The Palestinian press has been saying for weeks that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas would “drop a bombshell” when he spoke to the United National General Assembly today. In the event, the bomb did not go off.

In defending the Iran nuclear deal to Congress, President Obama and his staff argued repeatedly that rejection would leave America in dire isolation at the United Nations. Obama can now relax. Having used slash-and-burn executive tactics to roll right over a dissenting majority in Congress and a…

Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Obama administration's decision to take the Iran deal to the United Nations before the U.S. Congress votes on it. Kerry made the remarks in an interview this morning on ABC News:

A UN panel says that the White House and other Western governments have neglected to report Iranian violations of the sanctions regime.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas offered an amendment on the Senate floor this afternoon to "defend the U.S.-Israel alliance" at the United Nations. 

In the aftermath of Benjamin Netanyahu's inconvenient (to Barack Obama) victory in the Israeli election, it looks like the administration is heading towards exacting revenge. The administration's threat is that under President Obama the United States will "join the jackals"—the permanent, global,…

Bill Kristol recommends that Congress act to prevent Israel from being thrown to the jackals in the United Nations. The boss weighed in on Twitter:

A new law introduced in Congress seeks to prevent foreign diplomats and employees of the United Nations from receiving taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies. The bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Republicans Ed Royce and Paul Ryan.

In a Saturday night letter from President Obama's chief of staff Denis McDonough to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker, the White House confirmed that in fact the United Nations will play a key role in any nuclear deal that may be reached with Iran.

The big speech last week was, of course, the one given before Congress by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a forceful performance. Nancy Pelosi said that she was so dismayed by both the style and the substance of the prime minister’s speech that she was nearly reduced to tears.

While the attention of much of the world Sunday was focused on the massive unity rally in France in response to the recent terror attacks in that country, Secretary of State John Kerry was in India for a "global business" summit where he spoke of, among other concerns, the "one enormous cloud…

I hereby nominate Dick Cheney's answer to Chuck Todd's question about a United Nations official who's called for the criminal prosecution of U.S. interrogators, as the 2014 Sunday Show Answer of the Year:

Foreign Policy reports that the U.S. believes Iran is cheating on U.N. nuclear sanctions. "The United States has privately accused Iran of going on an international shopping spree to acquire components for a heavy-water reactor that American officials have long feared could be used in the…

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is being sent to Ebola-infected nations. The travel plans were announced this evening on Twitter.

In Manhattan last Tuesday afternoon, The Scrapbook discovered what it’s like to get close to the president, and it stinks. We also now understand how to assemble a huge crowd to admire a presidential motorcade: You simply close 40 blocks of one of the busiest streets in the world. With typical…

Last week was good for environmentalists, and perhaps even for the environment. President Obama doubled down on his effort to increase the likelihood of the success of the 2015 UN climate change conference in Paris, claiming the U.S. has “a special responsibility to lead. That’s what great nations…

President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly touched very lightly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That alone is a step forward: in previous years, he has made it a central part of his speech and left the impression that it is the main issue in world affairs.

Here's the text, as prepared for delivery, of President Obama's address to the United Nations General Assembly:

At the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary of State John Kerry will make "climate change ... a foreign policy priority," the State Department announced in press release. "Secretary Kerry Elevates Climate Change at UN General Assembly," the press release is titled.

During the siege of Bastogne in December 1944, the German general Heinrich von Lüttwitz sent his American adversaries a note, explaining how “the fortune of war is changing” and that “there is only one possibility to save the encircled U.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable…

The man who is described by his mouthpiece as “the constitutional lawyer in the Oval Office” is increasingly bored with the routine demands of his job (so much so that even Maureen Dowd has noticed) and finds the Constitution a darned nuisance and an obstacle.  So, as Coral Davenport of the New…

John Bolton, in a fundraising email, makes the case for defunding UNRWA--and more:

Justin Sink of The Hill reports that:

While crises continue in Ukraine, Syria, Iran, and the Central African Republic, the United Nations turned its attention to a different kind of crisis on Thursday: the "global road safety crisis."  The U.N. General Assembly held a session on Improving Global Road Safety in which the United States…

It is a cliché at this point to remark that John Kerry is operating in a fantasy world. But sometimes there is no other word to describe the enormous distance between his perception of what is happening and what is actually happening.

It's well over a year since the United Nations intellectual property agency got caught undermining the U.N.’s own sanctions—shipping U.S.-origin computers and related high-tech equipment to North Korea and Iran. In classic U.N. fashion, the World Intellectual Property Organization, known as WIPO,…

On October 17, Saudi Arabia was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council. The next day, Riyadh made a stunning announcement: It was declining the seat, because of the council’s longstanding “inability to perform its duties and responsibilities”…

Thought experiment: Imagine you are a national security reporter, covering the release of a massive, 2,000-page report on domestic intelligence gathering activities and future threat assessment from the National Security Agency. But instead of issuing the full report, the NSA issues a 30-page…

In his big speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week, President Obama pointedly avoided one particular subject: himself. Just kidding! The famously self-regarding Obama alluded to himself almost 50 times in his remarks. (That’s 7 mys, and 42 Is for those keeping track at home.)

Syria has receded from the front pages. A long and winding road of failed diplomacy lies ahead, and who wants to bother covering that? Meanwhile, Bashar al-Assad is more firmly in power than before, al Qaeda is stronger among the Syrian rebels, the United States has lost credibility, and Iran and…

In his speech today at the United Nations, President Obama continued his administration’s odd and somewhat schizophrenic policy with respect to freedom, human rights, and democracy. 

When President Obama abruptly called off the bombing strike on Syria and decided to seek the approval of Congress, he surprised no one more than French president François Hollande. France, the only country set to join the United States in the raid, was left in the lurch. Hollande was humiliated and…

President Obama said that the U.S. talk of military action in Syria is bypassing the "hocus pocus" of the U.N.:

Even as United Nations personnel are in Syria trying to investigate chemical weapons claims that have further exacerbated that country's bloody civil war, U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon was incongruously tasked with the celebration of the centennial of the Peace Palace in The Hague. After…

The boss joined Chris Stirewalt on Power Play earlier today to discuss Syria and the ambassador to the United Nations:

At 5:09 pm on August 21, Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted this:

In a report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, the Obama administration unequivocally denies the existence of secret detention facilities operated by any part of the U.S. government. The document is a response to "55 questions prepared by the Committee and transmitted to the United…

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to mark "World Toilet Day." The day will be celebrated November 19.

The Obama administration now believes that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad may have used chemical weapons. Today the White House released a letter explaining that the American “intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on…

Responding to a question about the retirement of the pope, U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon thanked the pope for his "profound commitment ... to interfaith dialogue."

On November 29, Albania was the sole Muslim-majority country in the United Nations to be counted among the 41 abstainers from the proposal to admit Palestine as a non-member observer. Certain Islamists were displeased, to say the least. In particular, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,…

It was believed that Ambassador Susan Rice, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, would either get the nod for secretary of state or, as a consolation prize, national security adviser. Regardless, the conventional wisdom held, Rice would be promoted in Obama's second term

In the middle of the night at a U.N. conference in Dubai, the presiding chairman of the International Telecommunication Union conference surveyed the assembled countries to see whether there was interest in having greater involvement in the U.N. governing the Internet. A majority of countries gave…

America's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, stated that today's resolution on the status of Palestine as an observer state "does not establish that Palestine is a state."

Next week the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports.

The U.N. wants to use drones, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reports. "The United Nations wants to use drones for the first time to monitor fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwanda has been accused of aiding rebels," says the report, quoting U.N. officials.

After a year and a half of conflict, and despite some 40,000 deaths, the world still stands impotent to end the bloodshed in Syria. With Russia and China reviving their recurring role as United Nations Security Council obstructionists, concerned countries have been forced to seek out meaningful…

The United States and Venezuela will now serve together on the United Nations Human Rights Council, after both countries won elections today to serve together. Venezuela received 154 votes and is in the Latin American group, while the U.S. received 131 and is in the Western group.

Here's the full text of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's United Nations address:

Two shocking photos coming off the wire of Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the United Nations moments ago.

In a message to Israeli citizens yesterday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he'd use his remarks at the United Nations to respond to the "black day" at the international body. Netanyahu is scheduled to speak later today.

In a speech at the United Nations this morning, President Obama says the attacks on America across the Muslim world over the last two weeks are also an "assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded."

The reason why President Obama is not meeting with any foreign leaders during this week's United Nations General Assembly in New York is, as one aide to the president explained, because "If he met with one leader, he would have to meet with 10."

CNN blasted President Obama this morning for skipping meetings with foreign leaders this week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City and instead appearing on daytime TV talk show The View:

Sometimes an uninhabited island chain is just an uninhabited island chain. But that’s never the case in East Asia, where territorial disputes often involve fishing rights, energy supplies, and, perhaps most importantly, the re-litigation of historical grievances.

The Huffington Post reports that "The Obama administration is blocking the creation of an international treaty designed to protect access to books and reading material for blind people in poor countries."

In January 2012, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yaakov Neeman, the justice minister, turned to former Israeli supreme court justice Edmond Levy to head a panel of legal experts that would look into questions of land ownership in the West Bank. The initiative came about when it was…

As CNN reported, "Russia and China vetoed a new U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday that would have imposed new sanctions on the Syrian regime."

The nation of Iran has been elected to serve on a top U.N. Arms Trade Treaty post, the monitoring group U.N. Watch reports. 

Syria is running for a spot on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Syrian regime, for over the past year, has ruthlessly engaged in suppressing protesters by murdering and detaining thousands of opposition figures, and now hopes the international body will be more accepting.

From the Washington Post: "Asked Thursday whether he could envision a situation in which the United States would take military action in Syria without U.N. authorization, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said, 'No, I cannot envision that because, look, as secretary of defense, my greatest…

America's ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, unequivocally stated at the U.N. Security Council stakeout that Iran is "very much complicit in the killing that is going on" in Syria. Rice would not provide further details on how the Iranians are helping the Syrians suppress the protesters…

The Atlantic: "Two Romneys in Two Days on Fox News."

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women “is expected to pass a resolution condemning Israel's part in the degrading of living conditions for Palestinian women, while failing to mention the mistreatment of women in the ongoing crisis in Syria,” Haaretz reports.

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the group U.N. Watch reports. The independent watchdog group also says that Pakistan is additionally “slated to run unopposed for seats on the UN’s 47-nation Human Rights Council this year.”

Human rights group U.N. Watch sends out this photo of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva flying its flag at half mast for the funeral of dead North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il:

Portraying President Obama’s U.N.-centered foreign policy as consistent with American values or pro-Israel has become increasingly difficult for administration officials. The result has been a steady stream of inaccurate accounts of goings-on at the organization.

The Anti-Defamation League's latest national poll finds broad support for military action to prevent nuclear armed Iran.

PLO chair Mahmoud Abbas released the prepared text of his U.N. remarks with a curious logo on the top right hand side of the page:

President Obama tried to reassure more than 900 rabbis today on a half-hour conference call that he’s a stalwart friend of Israel. In the midst of all the happy talk, though, he inadvertently revealed how he really thinks about the Middle East:

Bill Clinton today blasted Benjamin Netanyahu, blaming the Israeli prime minister for the lack of progress toward peace with the Palestinians.   

Regional reactions to Obama’s U.N. speech yesterday are starting to come in, including some very ugly responses. Here, for instance is a column from Adel Abd al-Rahman, a Palestinian journalist from al-Hayat al-Jadida, an official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, that makes much of the…

New York, New York—"Until we have a resolution to see, Daniel, the United Kingdom is not answering that question and you will not evoke another answer, I know, from another authoritative source from the United Kingdom delegation,” Alistair Burt, a member of Parliament and a member of the UK…

As Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s prepares to speak at the United Nations, it is tempting to dismiss his anti-American rants as just another propaganda stunt. But what makes his remarks difficult to ignore is that large segments of the Iranian population will buy into them. And that…

The logo of “the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations” – on their website and on top of their official statements at the U.N. – shows the Palestinian Authority’s claim to a Palestine that stretches throughout the entire historical entity of the former Palestine mandate.

President Obama’s speech to the United Nations, which he delivered this morning in New York, is filled with lots of little surprises. (For instance, “the United Nations helped avert a third World War.” Really?) But the big surprise is that he’s made his address to the General Assembly into a…

The Iranian minister of foreign affairs, Ali Akbar Salehi, is now scheduled to take part in the conference known as Durban III, according to a well-placed source close to the United Nations. On September 22, the U.N. will "commemorate" the 10th anniversary of Durban I that ended just three days…

New York, New York—This week, the Palestinians have come to the United Nations, where they hope to gather enough support from the Security Council—or at least the General Assembly—to be recognized as Palestine, a true and independent nation, by the world community. The Palestinians will make the…

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has just released a statement on the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations, blasting President Obama's policies toward Israel for the situation. “What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster," Romney…

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Speaker of the House John Boehner reiterated his commitment to Israel yesterday, in a speech given at the Jewish National Fund’s 2011 National Conference in Cincinnati. Boehner's speech is particularly timely, considering that the Palestinians will seek statehood at United Nations later this week.…

The debate intensifies around Obama's treatment of Israel. Today, the Emergency Committee for Israel goes behind enemy lines, running a full page advertisement in the New York Times that explains to President Obama what he should do if he wants to stand with Israel this week at the United Nations. 

The U.N. has quietly released the list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that will be allowed to attend its “anti-racism” conference on September 22, 2011 in New York. All NGOs that requested credentials to attend the so-called “Durban III” conference were granted permission, except for four…

I’m in New York, and the hotels are jammed with diplomats and bureaucrats associated with the U.N. General Assembly session, which opened yesterday. Overhearing various conversations at breakfast, I was reminded of John Bolton’s comment that "The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If…

On Friday, at noon, U.N. negotiators revealed the final text of the Durban III declaration that will be adopted by all heads of state attending the "anti-racism" event in New York on September 22, 2011.

At the U.N. in New York, diplomats have been putting the finishing touches on a new “anti-racism” declaration set to be adopted by over a hundred world leaders at the annual opening of the General Assembly. The declaration will be the culmination of the one-day summit on September 22, known as…

Plans for the U.N.’s “anti-racism” event known as Durban III, which will be held in New York City on September 22, 2011, just got a whole lot uglier. A new draft of the final declaration that U.N. organizers hope will be adopted by over a hundred world leaders, who will be on hand for the annual…

Jonathan V. Last, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

On Friday, the Czech Republic became the latest country to pull out of the upcoming U.N. “anti-racism” extravaganza known as Durban III. Canada, Israel, and the United States have already given thumbs down to the event, which the U.N. is bringing to U.S. shores on September 22, 2011. While…

"S&P to deeply cut U.S. ratings if debt payment missed"

On Tuesday, the United Nations again made itself an international laughing stock – except perhaps to the American taxpayers who continue to foot 22 percent of the bill – by appointing North Korea chair of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. That would be the same North Korea that, according to an…

On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly elected Iran one of its vice presidents and Qatar as president, each for a year-long term starting in September. At one and the same time the Obama State Department has been blanketing the airwaves with speeches on this administration’s love affair with the…

Amidst his other pronouncements on Mideast peace in late May, President Obama warned Palestinians they couldn’t get their state by a show of hands at the United Nations. Soon after, Israeli officials predicted that the Palestinian Authority would pursue its case at the U.N. in September. It’s a…

The Obama administration has been under siege for its support of the U.N.’s top human rights body, the U.N. Human Rights Council. Until today, Syria was seeking to join the Council during elections scheduled to take place at the General Assembly on May 20, 2011. The administration, European states,…

Berlin—Many European reactions to the recent murders by radical Islamists of pro- Palestinian Israeli filmmaker Juliano Mer-Khamis and Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni replicate the typical recurrence of the same: Shift the blame to Israel in an a priori fashion without delving into existing…

Article 7 of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines "crimes against humanity" as "murder" and other "inhumane acts" committed "as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population." It would be hard to find a clearer case of such offenses…

"Mean streak: Obama is not as nice as he looks"

The Obama administration’s effort to draw an artificial distinction between the butchers in Damascus and the gangsters in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, has taken a bizarre twist: Syria is seeking a seat on the U.N.’s top human rights body, the Human Rights Council. And, as part of the process leading…

In a written statement, the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) blasts the U.N. Security Council's attack on Israel. "As Arab governments are violently suppressing peaceful protests, the United Nations Security Council has, predictably, nothing to say," ECI says. The statement goes on to note the…

Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen issued a strong rebuke to reports that the Obama administration would make "a major concession to enemies of the Jewish State and other free democracies."

The world of U.N. human rights, best known for a human rights council with members like Libya, Saudi Arabia, and China, has just outdone itself. A short press release on Monday announces that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has made some new appointments. The biographies…

This bit of U.N. news would be comical if it weren't such a serious issue, as Fox News reports: 

The AP reports: 

The United Nations is planning to hold “Durban III” in New York City in September 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of the 2001 Durban conference, and the non-governmental forum which preceded it, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

As the American midterm election campaigns head to the finish line, the Obama administration is trying to convince Jewish voters that its treatment of Israel is not as hostile as it appears. In fact, it’s worse. The U.S. State Department has now adopted a practice honed by Israel’s Arab negotiating…

Ellen Bork's roundup of Nobel Peace Prize reactions yesterday deserves a postscript. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela sucked up to his ideological comrades in Beijing (not to mention very large customers of Venezuelan oil) in memorable fashion:

After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speeches, press conferences, and interviews in New York City last week, it’s obvious the Iranian president lives in a parallel universe. This has been difficult for many in the West to grasp. The Western reflex to believe that there are “universal truths” is…

A mere two days after May’s deadly flotilla raid off the coast of Gaza, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in a special “emergency session,” passed a resolution by a 32 to 3 count that “condemn[ed] in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the…

One of the well-known effects of alcohol is that it reduces inhibitions. China’s top-ranking UN diplomat, Sha Zukang, experimented with the substance at a banquet at a UN retreat in the Austrian ski resort of Alpbach. Addressing one of his American colleagues during a rambling toast, the truth…

In its Friday afternoon news dump before Labor Day weekend, the White House announced that President Obama had invited the ten leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join him for a summit in New York on September 24.  This will be the second U.S.-ASEAN summit, and the…

A few miles up the road from Ground Zero, the Obama administration recently submitted its account of the United States human rights record to the United Nations Human Rights Council.  The administration’s report, the first ever submitted by this nation to that body (whose members include Libya and…

In April, President Obama reminded Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev that "we too are working on our democracy."

The executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, Noah Pollak, argues in Politico that the Obama administration should leave the UN Human Rights Council:

Only days after Israel took the unprecedented step of agreeing to participate in a UN investigation on the Gaza flotilla incident, assurances given by the Obama administration have proven to be empty. The episode paints a disturbing picture of the administration's actions in pushing for this…

In the aftermath of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, the UN inserted a peacekeeping force of 11,000 troops from 31 nations. According to the UN resolution authorizing the mission, its purpose was to block the flow of weapons to Hezbollah and keep Hezbollah from operating south of the Litani River, near…