Statement on Syria by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

A new UN fact-finding delegation is on the ground in Syria, accepting an invitation by the Assad regime to see for themselves what life is like. So far, the UN is not impressed. Some have debated whether the presence of the UN is causing Assad to step up attacks on civilians in order to discourage them from speaking to the UN mission.

Meanwhile, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made a statement to the Human Rights Council during the 17th Special Session on the “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic” on August 22nd. Here is the full statement:

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Iran Analysis: Why Ahmadinejad is the Key to a Nuclear Deal...and Why It Won't Happen (Disney)

Patrick Disney writes for The Atlantic:

In about a month, Iran's firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will once again fly to New York to attend the opening of the UN General Assembly. Being the lightning rod that he is, there are sure to be vehement protests and massive public outcry over his mere presence, much less whatever vile exhortations he has in store for us this year. Although this particular stage drama has becomepredictable over the last six years, now there is a new twist: Ahmadinejad's near-total political impotence back home in Iran.

Ahmadinejad's recent fall from grace has led many observers to write him off as a meaningful force in Iran. One analyst I spoke to recently said Ahmadinejad has become more like a foreign minister than a president, able to go on trips and give speeches, but not much more.

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Israel Feature: How the US Tried to Block a UN Investigation into "War Crimes" (Lynch)

Susan Rice and Avigdor LiebermanColum Lynch writes for Foreign Policy magazine:

In the aftermath of Israel's 2008-2009 intervention into the Gaza Strip, Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, led a vigorous campaign to stymie an independent U.N. investigation into possible war crimes, while using the prospect of such a probe as leverage to pressure Israel to participate in a U.S.-backed Middle East peace process, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables provided by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks....

The new documents, though consistent with public U.S. statements at the time opposing a U.N. investigation into Israeli military operations, reveal in extraordinary detail how America wields its power behind closed doors at the United Nations. They also demonstrate how the United States and Israel were granted privileged access to highly sensitive internal U.N. deliberations on an "independent" U.N. board of inquiry into the Gaza war, raising questions about the independence of the process.

In one pointed cable, Rice repeatedly prodded U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to block a recommendation of the board of inquiry to carry out a sweeping inquiry into alleged war crimes by Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. In another cable, Rice issued a veiled warning to the president of the International Criminal Court, Sang-Hyun Song, that an investigation into alleged Israeli crimes could damage its standing with the United States at a time when the new administration was moving closer to the tribunal. "How the ICC handles issues concerning the Goldstone Report will be perceived by many in the US as a test for the ICC, as this is a very sensitive matter," she told him, according to a Nov. 3, 2009, cable from the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

Rice, meanwhile, assured Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during an Oct. 21, 2009, meeting in Tel Aviv that the United States had done its utmost to "blunt the effects of the Goldstone report" and that she was confident she could "build a blocking coalition" to prevent any push for a probe by the Security Council, according to an Oct. 27, 2009 cable.

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Ivory Coast: An Introduction to the Conflict (Purefoy)

Latest (10 April): The Battle for Abidjan

The west African country of Ivory Coast --- also known as Cote d'Ivoire --- has been rocked by civil conflict as forces loyal to opposition leader Alassan Ouattara seek to oust incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo after a disputed presidential election last November. Most of the international community recognize Ouattara's victory and are urging Gbagbo to go.

What's the wider background to the unrest?

Ivory Coast, which won independence from France in 1960, is one of west Africa's leading powers and, historically, had been one of its success stories.

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Ivory Coast: Hundreds Killed in a Western Town (Nossiter)

As rebels swept across Ivory Coast in a rapid advance last week to oust the nation’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, hundreds of people were killed in a single town, the United Nations and aid groups said Saturday, in the worst episode of violence during the four-month political crisis that has plunged the country back into civil war.

The exact number of dead was unclear. The United Nations said that 330 people had been killed, while aid organizations put the death toll as high as 1,000. It was also uncertain how many were civilians, and how many were combatants, but Caritas, a Catholic charity whose staff members visited the town, Duékoué, in western Ivory Coast, called it a “massacre.”

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Iran Video Special: Ahmadinejad Teaches the UN How to Make an Omelette

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proves to the United Nations that "you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs"; the ungrateful West and agents of sedition walk out.

Palestine Analysis: What Could Shift Hamas?

The United Nations Relief Works Agency has announced that unemployment in the Gaza strip has reached 45%. Monthly earnings in Gaza decreased by almost 10%, in real terms, between the first half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. UNRWA spokesperson Chris Guinness warned that without international intervention to halt the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the crisis could deepen substantially. 

As Facebook groups are calling for a 'revolution' in the Gaza Strip, Hamas's Interior Ministry Spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein told AFP late on Wednesday: "It makes no sense, this is little more than media hype. Gaza has already had a revolution --- what happened in 2007 was a real revolution against corruption."

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Israel Analysis: International Pressure is Growing to Break "Deadlock"

With the Quartet (the US, Russia, European Union and United Nations) declaring that the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is a threat to region's whole security and condemning Israel for its inaction following the end of 10-month freeze on settlement expansion in the West Bank; the circle around West Jerusalem is tightening.

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Lebanon Special: The CBC Video and Article "Who Killed Rafik Hariri?"

Evidence gathered by Lebanese police and, much later, the UN, points overwhelmingly to the fact that the assassins were from Hezbollah, the militant Party of God that is largely sponsored by Syria and Iran. CBC News has obtained cellphone and other telecommunications evidence that is at the core of the case.

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Iran Witness: Ahmadinejad, the UN, and The Society of the Spectacle (Pedestrian)

Ahmadinejad was there for the show, and as the lead performer, he was not going to leave the room disappointed. He had kept his end of the bargain, given us a magnificent spectacle which the world will be a buzz with for weeks to come --- much to his delight. And he was not going to leave the stage without that final, majestic farewell, even if he himself had to create it. The men clapped like crazy, and he could pretend they were real. The spectacle became the real, and we could no longer tell the difference.

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