Not so fast. We don't believe that the next secretary general belongs to any particular region. |
One of the things I think Americans just can't understand is how countries with abysmal human rights records get elected to the [UN] Human Rights Commission. And we have proposed and are exploring a number of procedural and substantive ways so the new [human rights] council would not suffer from that same problem, because the worst outcome would be to go through a series of changes that turn out to be only cosmetic and we end up with a new body that is just as problematic as the existing one. |
Our hope is to have a strong consensus document for the high-level event, ... We're working on that and we're making our views known as are other governments. |
Our hope still would be to reach agreement tomorrow so the ministers in Berlin can focus on the future and the next steps (in the showdown with Tehran). |
Our preference is to solve these problems by peaceful and diplomatic means, but the President has also been very clear that we're not taking any options off the table, |
Policies intended to bring about the termination of the Iranian and (North Korean) nuclear weapons programs, which result in reducing the council's role under the (U.N.) Charter, would truly be unfortunate and ironic. |
Quite some time ago the president said unequivocally we support the development goals in the millennium summit declaration, ... Now that's different from the goals that were actually written by the secretariat. There is no backing away by the United States in the support for the millennium summit declaration. |
Sanctions were put in before, it's not clear they're being adhered to, ... The question (is) whether we should do something else in that area in terms of arms into the country. |
Simply bringing this matter to the agenda of the Security Council changes the political dynamics for them (Iran) and hopefully will increase the international pressure. |
The Afghanistan compact was an important step forward. |
The debate in this chamber in July only highlighted deep divisions among member states and paralyzed the overall reform effort. We believe it would be a mistake to return to that discussion. |
The difficulty, of course, is that Iran has used its oil and natural gas as a weapon, and used it very skillfully with a variety of countries. They've used it with India, China, with others. I hope there's a way to work around the energy question, but it may be awkward for Japan. We understand that, but we think it's important to stick together on the non-proliferation. |
The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks, |
The dismantlement of their nuclear weapons program is critical to any further movement in the talks. |
The European arguments against the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act demonstrate that "some Europeans have never lost faith in appeasement as a way of life. It is clear that Iran is cynically manipulating gullible (or equally cynical) Europeans to advance its development of weapons of mass destruction. |