As the war in Ukraine enters its third month, more convergence has emerged between China and key states in the Middle East. Motivated by a shared frustration with the United States, China and its Middle East partners have found themselves on the same side more often than not regarding the conflict.

Evidence of this alignment is found in the voting records of three recent United Nations resolutions.

On February 26, the UN Security Council voted on a resolution that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops. Three members of the Security Council abstained, namely China, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

Less than a week later, on March 2, the UN General Assembly voted on a motion calling for an immediate end to the hostilities. In that vote, China, Iran and Iraq were among 35 countries that abstained.

And on April 7, the General Assembly adopted a resolution suspending Russia from the Human Rights Council. This time, a much longer list of Middle East countries abstained, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq. China, Iran and Syria were among those voting against.

Taken together, the tallies at the UN reveal an inconvenient truth: Even as much of the world condemns Russia’s hostilities in Ukraine, the war has led to China and the Middle East having more in common on various positions.

Some of the commonalities are self-serving. For instance, support for Russia’s seat on the Human Rights Council was due to shared concern over precedent, and how their own human-rights records might be judged in the future. Others’ moves, such as the UAE’s abstention from the UNSC resolution calling for an end to fighting, was driven by annoyance that Washington failed to designate the Houthis as terrorists despite the group’s attack on an oil refinery in Abu Dhabi on January 17.

While Russia maintains relationships with and influence in the Middle East and China – through historical ties, investments, and leverage (as well as shared grievances with the West) – it is actually rifts between the US and the Middle East that are driving Gulf states closer to China.

The consequences of this alignment could be significant. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia was negotiating with China over Beijing’s desire to buy oil with renminbi, a request the kingdom is apparently considering on economic and political grounds.

The US-Saudi relationship is at its lowest point in a decade, primarily due to Washington’s concerns over Saudi domestic politics and human-rights abuses, especially the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. If the renminbi deal happens, it could pose a significant challenge to the dollar’s status as the global trade currency.

The war in Ukraine has also added another layer of uncertainty to Washington’s relationship with the Middle East.

President Joe Biden’s administration is divided between a focus on the Indo-Pacific region and America’s role in the European theater – between a rising China and a belligerent Russia. This presents the US with a quandary: Does it have the resources and political will to stay fully engaged in the Middle East? If the answer is “no,” the region will face many uncertainties amid a potential power vacuum.

No country is better positioned to fill that vacuum than China, even if Beijing calculates its steps carefully. Beijing has been boosting its engagement with the Middle East for a decade, and diplomatic engagement has soared.

In 2021 alone, the Chinese foreign minister visited the Middle East twice, stopping in nine countries. Moreover, in January this year, China hosted the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Turkey.

Ukraine isn’t the only issue bolstering China’s role in the Middle East. The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened the Chinese presence through the deployment of vaccines. Since 2020, millions of doses of China’s Sinopharm have been administered in the region.

Beijing is also eagerly looking for opportunities to enhance its role in regional conflict resolution, regularly making proposals to reach peace in Syria and Iran. China may not yet want to replace the US as the primary security provider in the Middle East, but it free-rides as much as it tries to expand its own influence.

That might be the most important takeaway of the last two months. While the war in Ukraine did not create the convergence between China and the Middle East, it has expedited a process that was already in motion.

With the US preoccupied in the Indo-Pacific region and in Europe, and with bilateral relations strained between the US and key Middle East allies, the region’s great-power dynamics are shifting under the clouds of conflict in Ukraine.

When the political skies clear, it could easily be Beijing, and not Washington, that gains ground in the region.

This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright.

Yun Sun is director of the China program and co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC.

Source: https://asiatimes.com/2022/05/ukraine-war-realigns-positions-between-china-middle-east/

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Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly via video-link from Ramallah [Getty]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday said that Israel “had one year ahead to end the occupation” of the West Bank.

Abbas made this statement in a speech addressing the UN General Assembly, adding that if the occupation doesn’t end, “we will head to the International Court of Justice, to have a decision on the legitimacy of the occupation on the borders of 1967”.

Speaking via video-link from Ramallah, Abbas hinted that he could withdraw recognition of Israel.

“If the occupation continues, what does our recognition of Israel within its 1967 borders mean?” he said.

Abbas also strongly condemned the Israeli government’s stated policy of not negotiating with his Palestinian Authority, which has limited self-rule in the West Bank. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet said that he won’t meet the Palestinian president.

Abbas accused Israel of “evading a political solution”, warning that “undermining the two-state solution will open the doors for alternatives that will be imposed by facts on the ground, including the return to the Resolution 181 partition plan of 1947”.

He added that Israel’s practices of “ethnic cleansing and annexation”  will “consecrate the reality of a single racist state”, saying that the international community “has failed to hold Israel accountable, allowing it to “behave as a state above the law”.

Israel has constructed hundreds of illegal settlements in the West Bank, where approximately 600,000 Israelis live.

Dialogue with the US

The Palestinian president criticized “the states who give money and weapons to Israel, who uses them to kill Palestinians”. His remarks came one day after the US Congress approved $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome system.

However, Abbas also referred to “our constructive dialogue with the American administration to restore US-Palestinian relations”. On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly that he supports the creation of a Palestinian state, saying that it is “the best way” to ensure Israel’s future. Biden, however, added that “we are still a long way from that goal at this moment”.

In addition, Abbas called on UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres to organize an international peace conference “under the auspices of the international quartet only”, as well as to “activiate the UN resolutions concerning international protection for the Palestinian people”.

Abbas referred to the UNGA emergency meeting resolution of June 2018 that requested the UN Secretary General to present “recommendations for an international protection mechanism for Palestinians”.

The international quartet on the Middle East is made up of four countries and organizations involved in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process – the United States, the European Union, the UN, and Russia.

Elections and reconciliation with Hamas

Concerning internal Palestinian politics, Abbas said that municipal elections will be organized in the Palestinian territories “in the coming months”.

He also referred to the presidential and legislative elections, which were planned for last May before Abbas called them off in April. He insisted that “we did not cancel the elections, but we postponed them until we have a guarantee that we can hold them in Jerusalem”.

Palestinians last went to the polls in 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections.  Abbas’s official term as Palestinian president ended in 2009, but no presidential elections have been held since then.

In 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip following a deadly conflict with Abbas’s Fatah movement. Abbas said that he was “working to form a national unity government” with Hamas which would “help to begin the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip”.

The besieged Gaza Strip is still suffering the effects of 14 years of crippling Israeli blockade and four wars which have happened since 2008.

The 85- year-old Palestinian president said during his speech that “I’ve struggled all my life for peace, and I have followed the legal and peaceful ways, but I have found no partner for peace in Israel.

“We thank the international community for helping the Palestinian people build their institutions and economy, but the time has come to take steps that could put an end to occupation,” he added.

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/abbas-gives-israel-one-year-end-occupation-west-bank

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8:10 p.m.

He didn’t get a spot at the U.N. General Assembly. But U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó still put out his own online message during this year’s gathering of world leaders.

On his social media, the man recognized by the U.S. as Venezuela’s rightful president delivered a rebuttal Wednesday following Nicolás Maduro’s remarks.

He stood before four Venezuelan flags and spoke as though he were addressing a roomful of dignitaries gathered for the annual event.

In his recorded remarks, Guaidó called on nations to denounce human rights abuses committed by the Maduro government.

He pointed to a recent in-depth report commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council that accuses Maduro’s government of committing crimes against humanity, including torture and killings blamed on security forces.

Guaidó is recognized by nearly 60 nations as Venezuela’s president and has been in a nearly two-year standoff with Maduro. But he’s struggled to renew the momentum he generated last year.

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6:50 p.m.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has blasted the United States as “the most serious threat to peace in the world” in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly while calling for the Trump administration to lift punishing sanctions.

In a lengthy speech, Maduro said his nation is prepared to resist “criminal, inhumane aggression” aimed at ousting him from power while also leaving open the possibility of dialogue.

The message touching on topics ranging from COVID-19 to recent U.S. protests was prerecorded and played before the U.N. gathering Wednesday.

Maduro didn’t attend the annual event last year amid mounting pressure from the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations to step down.

The virtual gathering this year allowed him to return to the world stage.

The speech comes as Maduro gains an upper hand in the political feud with Juan Guaidó. The U.S.-backed opposition leader is expected to deliver his own remarks online this evening.

___

6:15 p.m.

Afghanistan’s president is urging the world to help his war-battered nation achieve peace amid talks with the Taliban aimed at ending nearly two decades of conflict.

Ashraf Ghani made the appeal Wednesday in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly, saying the country faces “multiple drivers of turmoil all at once” but “peace remains our most urgent and important priority.”

A U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Trump administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February and the long-delayed talks finally got underway in Qatar on Sept. 12.

At the talks, Ghani said, “the Afghan people have a clear and urgent priority: a cease-fire.”

He called on the 192 other members of the General Assembly to help achieve a “sovereign, united and democratic Afghanistan.”

The Afghan president says that outcome would show “how our collective will can overcome the turmoil and uncertainty that defines our world today.”

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5 p.m.

Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez has told the virtual U.N. General Assembly that her nation’s upcoming election is a choice between liberty and oppression.

The South American leader barely touched on the coronavirus pandemic, instead speaking about her country’s inner turmoil in a prerecorded video Wednesday.

Bolivia is slated to hold an Oct. 18 presidential vote that had been delayed by the pandemic.

Áñez took power following Evo Morales’ ouster in November 2019. She recently dropped out of the upcoming race, saying she wanted to avoid dividing the votes of people who oppose the return of Morales’ party.

Morales was the country’s first indigenous president and resigned under pressure from the military and police amid widespread protests.

Áñez said populist projects represent a “new form of authoritarianism” in Latin America.

Human Rights watch recently concluded that terrorism charges against Morales appear to be politically motivated and part of a wider campaign by Bolivia’s interim government to use the justice system against political opponents.

The interim government has denied the allegations.

___

4:40 p.m.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has used his speech before the U.N. General Assembly to urge the “de-occupation” of Russian-annexed Crimea and remind the world that his country is stuck in a frozen war with Moscow-backed rebels.

Zelenskiy made no reference to the United States or its upcoming election, in which his country played an unwitting role. This year’s impeachment trial against U.S. President Donald Trump centered on accusations that he pressured Zelenskiy to investigate actions by Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine.

Instead, Zelenskiy focused on Russia in his prerecorded speech Wednesday, calling it “unacceptable when the sovereignty of an independent country is violated by one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.”

Like many leaders, he expressed hope that countries could work together to fight the coronavirus and that the 75th General Assembly “will come down in history as an example of returning to effective multilateralism and effective international solidarity.”

___

3:10 p.m.

Kenya’s president has given a generational jolt to the 75-year-old United Nations, pointing out that the world body is older than 96% of the global population.

In a prerecorded speech Wednesday at the U.N. General Assembly, Uhuru Kenyatta said the U.N. was created to bring hope to a world in ruins after World War II, “but what does it bring to the world today?”

The statement is fitting coming from an African nation. The continent has the world’s youngest population, with a median age of 19. And that booming population is increasingly impatient with leaders multiple times their age.

African leaders also want to shake up the U.N. system that keeps the global powers of 75 years ago in charge, while Africa’s 1.3 billion people are without a permanent seat on the U.N.’s most powerful body, the Security Council.

This week at the U.N. gathering of world leaders, African nations again have made it clear it’s time that changed.

___

2:30 p.m.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández says that as a COVID-19 survivor, he’s worried about health and social inequities heightened by the pandemic.

The Central American leader was hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 in July.

In a prerecorded video aired Wednesday at the U.N. General Assembly, Hernández said that in the global rush to stock up on medicines and hospital equipment during the early months of the pandemic, “only a few countries were able to get ample access.”

He added, “It wasn’t those who are the most in need.”

Nations that produce supplies frequently held on to them for their own population. Hernández asked, “What about the rest of the countries? People die?”

Hernández likewise questioned who will get access to a vaccine.

He concluded by noting that, “The virus has reminded us in the most difficult way that in the end we are all humans — vulnerable, members of the same species.”

Honduras has diagnosed over 72,000 cases in the nation of 9.5 million.

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1:20 p.m.

Lebanon’s president called for the international community’s support to rebuild the country’s main port and destroyed neighborhoods after last month’s catastrophic explosion that decimated the facility.

President Michel Aoun spoke Wednesday in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s virtual summit, telling world leaders that Lebanon is facing multiple crises that pose an unprecedented threat to the small country’s existence.

Most urgently, he said the country needs the international community’s support to rebuild its economy and its destroyed port. He suggested breaking up the damaged parts of the city into separate areas and so that countries that wish to help can each commit to rebuilding one.

The Aug. 4 explosion was the result of nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored and rotting ammonium nitrates igniting at the port. The blast killed nearly 200 people, injured 6,500, and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.

An investigation is underway, but no one has been held accountable so far. Aoun, in his speech, said Lebanon had requested assistance from certain countries, particularly for soil samples and satellite images, and was still waiting for their results.

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11:35 a.m.

Kazakhstan’s president says the world has witnessed collapse of international cooperation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is close to a state of “global disfunction.”

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s first high-level virtual meeting that the post-Cold War world largely missed the chance to build a truly just system.

He said this is a “make-or-break moment” for humankind.

The Kazakh leader called for upgrading national health institutions, taking politics out of the development of a coronavirus vaccine and revising regulations to increase the World Health Organization’s capacity “and to develop national capabilities in preventing and responding to diseases.”

Tokayev suggested establishing a network of regional disease centers under U.N. auspices, and a new “International Agency for Biological Safety” based on the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and accountable to the U.N. Security Council.

___

11:29 a.m.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh is asking for international assistance to cope with the many crises facing Iraq amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite limited resources resulting from years of wars, blockades and violence, Iraq has implement some measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Saleh said in his prerecorded address to the U.N. General Assembly. But the “journey has been long and arduous.”

Weak infrastructure in the face of rising case numbers is a constant challenge, Saleh added.

“Developed nations must provide assistance to developing nations to create an environment to fight the pandemic and limit its harmful effects,” he said.

A severe drop in oil prices has compounded economic woes brought on by the pandemic, he said. He also renewed calls for the international community to put in place an coalition to fight corruption, saying mismanagement was a “scourge” in his country that enables terrorist financing.

“Indeed we cannot eradicate terrorism, if we do not dry up its financing,” he said.

Source: https://www.startribune.com/the-latest-bosnia-asks-covid-19-vaccine-be-available-to-all/572503921/?refresh=true

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Iran on Friday rejected Israeli accusations that it was concealing a “secret atomic warehouse,” after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his UN General Assembly speech to challenge Tehran.

The claims were “baseless and ridiculous,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to the Isna news agency.

Javad Zarif @JZarif

No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program – including an *actual atomic arsenal*. Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors.

He added that the only recognized supervisory body for nuclear facilties was the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had in certified Iran’s nuclear programme as peaceful 12 times in the past three years.

During his speech in New York on Thursday, Netanyahu presented maps and photos of what he claimed was a secret nuclear weapons storage site in Tehran disguised as a rug-cleaning business.

He said that some 15 kilograms of radioactive material had been relocated from the site to other parts of the capital in recent weeks and called on the IAEA to investigate.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 27, 2018.\ CARLO ALLEGRI/ REUTERS

>> Netanyahu’s UN speech was one his most convincing and effective performances

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ridiculed the presentation.

“No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in our region with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons program – including an *actual atomic arsenal*,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Time for Israel to fess up and open its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors,” he said.

---

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/iran-dismisses-netanyahu-s-claims-on-a-secret-atomic-warehouse-in-tehran-as-ridiculous-1.6513385

[Disclaimer]

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Jerusalem (CNN)In one of the biggest exchanges of fire between the two sides in years, militants in Gaza launched some 45 rockets toward Israel early Wednesday morning, prompting retaliatory airstrikes from Israeli fighter jets, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Related Article: The dream of ‘peace in our time’ in the Middle East died on Monday

 

The exchange came a day after Israel struck nine targets in northern Gaza in response to the launching of incendiary kites by Palestinians, according to the IDF.

Israel has struggled to deal with the low-tech weapons, which have sparked hundreds of fires and burned more than 6,000 acres of farmland, according to a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Monday.

Firefighters in Kissufim, on the Israeli side of the Gazan border, told CNN Monday they were battling 20 to 30 blazes a day.

Hundreds in months-long Gaza protests crippled for life by Israeli gunfire

 

Speaking about the kites Wednesday, Conricus said: “They may look like a toy but… they are not toys, they are weapons. They are intended to kill and inflict damage.”

The use of kites by Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza has increased significantly in recent weeks. It’s part of the continuing protest movement along the border fence separating Gaza and Israel, in which more than 120 Palestinians have been killed since March 30.

Israel has been accused of using excessive force against the protesters, a charge the country’s leaders have denied. Israel claims Hamas is orchestrating the protests.

Last week, the UN General Assembly condemned Israel for the use of excessive force against Palestinian civilians. The resolution also condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israeli civilian areas.

Andrey Carey reported from Jerusalem and Judith Vonberg wrote from London. CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Ian Lee also contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/middleeast/gaza-israel-escalation-intl/index.html

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“When I give a presentation like this I often ask the audience which country is the largest host for refugees in the world? And the answer is rarely Turkey”, said Matthew Saltmarsh, the Senior Communications Officer at UNHCR, the UN’s Refugee Agency.

The number of refugees in Turkey amounts to more than 4% of the country’s total population and the Turkish government has spent over €25.1 billion on humanitarian aid -proportionally more than any other nation in comparison to Turkey’s GDP.

The UNHCR is currently working on a ‘global compact’ that will be proposed in the 2018 annual report to the UN General Assembly, which would serve as a framework for spreading out responsibility and enable countries to cooperate more effectively in their response to the large-scale migration of refugees.

Speakers from the different organisations stressed the need for the international community to financially and morally support hosting countries while noting that the European Union has only paid half of the €6 billion promised in its 2016 refugee agreement with Turkey.

The number of places allocated for resettlement has steadily declined since the agreement was signed, with only 75,000 places available in 2017, which comes at a time when the living conditions of refugees in Turkey are precipitously deteriorating.

Child labour and human trafficking is also a significant problem are becoming more common as more people are forced out of desperation to work on the black market. Early marriage is also becoming more prevalent at a time when educational rates have fallen.

A study conducted by Emergency Social Safety Net shows that 19% of the Syrians in Turkey are living below the extreme poverty line.

“Where Turkey differs slightly from the other countries in the region is that the government very much takes the lead in the refugee response, coordinating the efforts of the UN agencies, unlike Jordan or Lebanon,” Saltmarsh said.

Ankara offers temporary protection to refugees and gives them access to free healthcare, education, and in some cases, provides work permits. Facilitating access to work may reduce the financial burden but Abby Dwommoh, a public information officer and spokeswoman for the International Organisation for Migration highlighted the challenges of integrating so many people into the labour market, especially in Turkey where unemployment rates have been rising over the last two years and where the economy is in deep crisis following the collapse of the national currency, the lira.

The lack of places for resettlement in the EU means that refugees settle in Turkey and some cities, including Kilis near the Syrian border, host more Syrians than Turks.

“The latest Regional Refugees and Resilience Plan report shows that while you have 3.5 million Syrian refugees, you have a population of 8 million local citizens in Turkey who have been negatively affected by the inflow of migrants,” said Saltmarsh.

Without greater support from Europe, the situation for both Syrians in Turkey and Turks, themselves, will become increasingly difficult over the coming years.

Source: https://www.neweurope.eu/article/turkey-needs-greater-burden-sharing-managing-syrian-refugee-crisis/

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The General Assembly on Sunday approved the regular budget of USD 5.397 billion for 2018-2019, the UN said in a statement on Tuesday.

The amount sets the budget level around USD 286 million (or five per cent) below the final approved level for 2016- 2017, and USD 193 million below the initially proposed budget level for 2018-2019, including all “add-ons”.

The additional reductions come mainly from across-the- board cuts in non-post resources for most Departments and Offices, including the Special Political Missions, the UN said in a statement.

Taking credit for the budget cut, America’s Indian-origin Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that she negotiated a reduction of over USD 285 million off the 2016-2017 final budget.

“In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key US priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system,” she said in a statement.

“The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.

“This historic reduction in spending, in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN, is a big step in the right direction,” Haley said.

She said that while “we are pleased with the results of this year’s budget negotiations, you can be sure we will continue to look at ways to increase the UN’s efficiency while protecting our interests”.

According to the UN statement, the General Assembly approved resources in the amount of USD 88 million for the establishment and maintenance of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) for the period from October 16, 2017 to June 30, 2018.

It approved resources in the amount of USD 911 million for the maintenance of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) for the period from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.

This brings the total overall approved resources for peacekeeping operations for the 2017/18 period to USD 7.316 billion, which compares to approved resources for the 2016/17 period of USD 7.909 billion, a reduction of USD 593 million or 7.5 per cent.

The General Assembly granted a one-year commitment authority for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, it said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the General Assembly’s support to his management reform proposal aimed at enhancing delivery of all mandates and the performance of the Secretariat.

The General Assembly also provided guidance on the comprehensive proposals, including on the restructuring of the Departments of Field Support and of Management to be submitted by mid-2018.

In particular, the General Assembly endorsed the proposal to move from a biennial planning and budgeting period to annual programme budget on a trial basis, as of 2020.

This signals one of the most significant shifts in the programme planning and budgeting process of the Organisation since the 1970s, the UN said.

The General Assembly also requested the Secretary-General to undertake an assessment of the mechanisms and levels of discretionary managerial authorities that may be required in order to address unanticipated programmatic needs and to report in the 73rd Session, the UN statement added. — PTI.

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/united-nations-cuts-budget-by-usd-286-mn-us-claims-credit/519630.html

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Credit: AP

‘TAKING NAMES’: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, above, yesterday hailed the decision to slash the U.N. budget by $285 million days after the U.N. General Assembly voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution declaring President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ‘null and void.’

WASHINGTON — The United States has slashed the two-year budget for the United Nations by $285 million, delivering on a promise to cut spending on the agency after the U.N. Security Council overwhelmingly denounced President Trump’s decision to move the country’s embassy in Israel.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley hailed the decision to negotiate a reduction to the overall 2018-2019 budget as one of “a host of successes” by the U.S.

“(W)e reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key U.S. priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system,” Haley said in a statement. “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.”

Ahead of last week’s U.N. General Assembly vote to declare the U.S. decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “null and void,” Haley warned in a tweet that “the U.S. will be taking names.”

After the assembly voted 128-9 Thursday to denounce Trump’s decision to move the embassy and declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, Haley and other U.S. officials promised to revisit the U.S.’s role in the organization, including the size of its financial contributions.

“America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that,” Haley said. “But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the U.N., and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the U.N.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted after the vote: “Given its tendency to be forum for anti-Semitism & anti-Americanism, reevaluation of US role as single largest donor to #UN is long overdue.”

Earlier this year, Rubio introduced legislation to withhold U.S. funding to the U.N. and all affiliated agencies until they stopped what Rubio called “systemic bias and targeting of the Jewish state of Israel.”

Trump also threatened to withhold “billions” in funding from the U.N. member countries that voted in favor of denouncing the U.S.’s embassy relocation.

“We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump said before a Cabinet meeting at the White House last week. “This isn’t like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re not going to be taken advantage of any longer.”

Haley’s statement didn’t specify how much of the reduction would come as a result in the reduction of U.S. contributions. According to PolitiFact, about 22 percent of the U.N.’s funding, or roughly $3.3 billion, comes from the U.S.

Source: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/2017/12/analysis_us_cuts_funds_for_un_after_null_and_void_vote

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The nation says its five-year space development program is aimed at helping to improve its economy.

“Some countries have manipulated U.N. sanctions resolutions against us and hindered the sovereign country’s space development. It is not a tolerable act,” the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said. “It is a global trend that a country seeks the economic growth with the space program.”

The plan to launch satellites is seen as an attempt by Pyongyang to build a case to potentially launch a long-range rocket, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. The North fired long-range rockets in 2012 and 2016.

Ballistic missiles and the rockets used to launch satellites have similar bodies, engines and other technology.

North Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador Kim In Ryong announced North Korea’s plan for 2016-2020 to develop “practical satellites that can contribute to the economic development and improvement of the people’s living” at a U.N. General Assembly committee meeting earlier this month.

He said the U.S. was “going frantic to illegalize our development of outer space,” by claiming it violated U.N. sanctions.

Kim said no U.N. article states that satellite launches threaten international peace and security, “nor is there any article stipulating that one cannot use ballistic rocket technology in launching a satellite.”

“The U.S. is the country that launched the largest number of satellites and yet it claims that our launch of satellites is a threat to international peace and security,” Kim said. “This is a preposterous allegation and extreme double standards.”

Kim said North Korea launched its first pilot communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-1, in August 1998. He said his country “entered the practical satellite developing stage” with the successful entry into orbit of Kwangmyongsong-4 in February 2016.

North Korea has not made any provocations since it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3. Earlier in the summer, it launched missiles over Japan and test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that Chinese police arrested two North Korean agents in Beijing on suspicion of plotting to murder Kim Han Sol, the 22-year-old nephew of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Han Sol’s father Kim Jong Nam — Kim Jong Un’s half-brother — was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia on Feb. 13. Two women are currently on trial for murder, which they deny. Four other suspects including the alleged mastermind of the plot remain at large.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/30/north-korea-vows-launch-more-satellites-into-orbit/812313001/

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