A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary
Agonist: “Security Council Fails To Reach Accord on Iran – WaPo – The Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany failed to reach agreement at a meeting Monday on how to respond to the Iranian nuclear crisis but said they would forge ahead in the coming days to break the impasse. The deadlock comes as U.S. and European officials confirmed that Britain had presented the United States with a paper outlining a possible diplomatic strategy to resolve the crisis, including new talks and concessions. But the British representative at Monday’s talks, John Sawers, said Britain had not made such a proposal at the meeting.”
Tapped (Mark Leon Goldberg): “Finally, there’s some good news out of Western Africa: The newly elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, formally requested that the government of Nigeria extradite former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor to the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Huffington Post (Steve Clemons): “Anne-Marie Slaughter sums up the state of affairs regarding America’s stance towards the new Human Rights Council beautifully. Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, outlines that although America voted “no” on the Council, word from the U.N. has it that Secretary Rice pushed hard to soften Bolton’s stated opposition to the Council… Far more important, though, was the announcement later in the day that the U.S. would in fact help to fund the Council and would pledge support for making it “as strong and effective as it can be.” Stygius: “Via Steve Clemons at Bolton Watch, the Christian Science Monitor barely conceals exasperation: “As the United Nations Security Council wrestles with how to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, discussion at UN headquarters is at times as much about the council’s effectiveness and America’s role in the international community as it is about Iran.” Sound vaguely familiar? Unfortunately, we have a UN Ambassador who is willing to sabotage the overall process and thwart results — and maybe get a lot of people killed — in order to acquire vindication for an assumption.”
Uganda – CAN: “Dennis McNamara, the U.N. special adviser on internal displacement, has warned of a “human rights crisis” in northern Uganda where “the rule of law does not apply.” McNamara just spent a week touring the conflict-affected regions of the north and meeting with senior government officials and UN agencies working in the region. “They [internally displaced people] live in unacceptable conditions, are not getting adequate basic services and are unprotected,” said McNamara, speaking to reporters. Jan Egeland, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator will visit Uganda at the end of March to discuss the U.N. proposal that all aspects of the war, not just the humanitarian aspect, be more systematically addressed.”