A sampling of United Nations related blog commentary

Americablog: "Sudan peace deal closer, but not quite there - All parties have agreed to the peace deal except for the rebels who are pressing for more time. What is especially significant here and what should be recognized as an extremely positive move is that the African Union has been the key player during these negotiations. For too many years, the AU stood by and did nothing while Africa drifted into chaos and genocide. It would be nice to see the AU take a stand against thugs like Mugabe but like they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. With oil money in play, pulling together a serious consensus in the UN is going to be difficult so the AU's role here is critical."Austin Bay: Disbanding the Militias: Iraq's Next Tough Job - Iraq's successes noted, defanging sectarian and tribal militias is a very tough trick. UN peacekeepers in the eastern Congo understand that. Iraq the Model has the details. As the post notes, the militias argue they provide security where the government cannot."

Carpetbagger: "It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Iran continues to defy anyone and everyone with respect to its nuclear program. Only within the last month, Iran has announced, with much nationalist fanfare, that it has succeeded in enriching its own uranium (if only to 3.5 percent, well below the 80 percent necessary to build a bomb, but still) and that it may just share its nuclear technology with other would-be nuclear states (like the Sudan). The rhetoric has been ratcheted up on all sides, but most noticeably by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has referred to Israel, the most obvious target of a nuclear Iran (in speech, if not necessarily in deed), as "a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm". Well, Iran's defiance is currently being directed at the U.N..."

Counterterrorism Blog: "Just two open terrorism-related hearings in the U.S. Congress this week: The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing this Tuesday on the FBI. Topics are likely to include the extent of information sharing with other agencies (or lack thereof) and the status of troubled FBI computer systems. The U.S. House Government Reform Committee's national security subcommittee will review the viability of future U.N. sanctions in light of the Oil-for-Food scandal and proposed U.N. management reforms."

Democracy Arsenal (Suzanne Nossel): "After last Friday's report by the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Tehran has successfully enriched uranium and defied the UN Security Council's Friday deadline to halt the process, we find ourselves in a frightening stand-off with an uncontrollable Islamic demagogue bent getting nukes. I am not an expert on the region, but here's my take on some things the U.S. ought and ought not do..."

Informed Comment: "IAEA Finds no Proof of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program - In its April 28 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency mentioned the UNSC mandate to Iran of last February... Despite not being fully in compliance with these demands, Iran maintains that it is in fact fulfilling its obligations under the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty. The IAEA found no smoking gun."

Jurist: "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour headed to Darfur Monday as she continued a five-day visit to Sudan to press the government to end the violence and address rights abuses in the region. UN spokesman Jose Diaz says reports indicate that the situation there has remained the same or even worsened in some cases since Arbour visited the troubled area a year and a half ago."