Sanctions in response

On May 18th, the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made an announcement that five veto-aiming members of the UN Security Council and Germany had consented to extend sanctions on Iran and would present this resolution to the full council soon. This is a fierce response to the triumph the regional powers – Brazil and Turkey – just touched a day earlier, a deal of exchanging low-enriched uranium for the higher enriched one between these two countries and Iran. The five permanent members found this situation faithless, in regard to the scar of the October deal in which Iran turned their back. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council requires 9 votes out of 15 (with no veto from the permanent five) for the resolution. Lebanon is skeptical; Gabon has gone for negotiation; Mexico gets stuck between its regional partners of America and Brazil; China is in no doubt for a veto, while America is considering tougher sanctions as a diplomatic manner. In conclusion, “it now seems that Iran may have successfully repeated its old trick of confusing and dividing countries preparing to tighten the net around it.”

Submitted by Yen Do.

UN Condemns "War Crimes" in Gaza

In an ongoing conflict that has started over half a century ago, many are used to hearing about terrorist activities, failed peace processes and rezoning when it comes to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Out of all the recent headlines, the one that resulted in the most deaths, is the one in Gaza that took place in December of 2007. After a six month investigation, the UN declared that Israel committed war crimes during the Gaza conflict. The report claimed that there were numerous deliberate attacks on civilians and that the firing of of certain shells were against humanitarian laws. The conflict resulted in a total of 1400 Palestinian deaths and 13 Israeli deaths. The investigators advised that the UN security council should allow both Israel and Palestine to launch their own "credible investigations" in three months or that the council should refer the case to the ICC.

By: Aminat T. Odunewu

North Korea Finally Calls the Bluff

Post by Bri Roozen

Sunday morning was an exciting day for the North Koreans, who took their first step towards the 'peaceful launch of a satellite', that flew not into space, but right over Japan.  Outraged reactions by South Korea, Japan, and America were instantaneously heard, and caused an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.  Despite the calls for immediate action on North Korea, who were in obvious violation of the 2006 Security Council, the emergency meeting ended with no greater reaction than acknowledgment of the occurrence.  This was a grave disappointment to many political leaders including our own President Obama.  The launch was not seen as a provocation by all countries, however, as the communist party of the Soviet Union as well as the Czech Republic applauded the show of disregard for international law.  

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/05/nkorea.worldreax/index.html