12 Countries Represented in Manchester City's 2011/12 EPL Title-Winning Squad
Players from Belgium, Bosnia, Chile, Italy and Montenegro on Manchester City team become their country’s first English Premier League title winners. My post for Bleacher Report.
The Nuclear Armed UN Security Council
The current composition of the U.N. Security Council includes seven states who together possess 18,900 of the 19,000 nuclear weapons in existence today.
The vast majority of those weapons belong to two of the five permanent UNSC members, Russia (10,000) and the U.S. (8,000), according to a new report from Ploughshares.
The three other permanent members of the council - Britain, China and France - possess 775 nuclear weapons between them. (One of the arguments in support of the P5 veto power is that it prevented those states with a nuclear arsenal from attacking each other, though this is increasingly obsolete in a post-Cold War context.)
The two remaining countries on the council with nuclear stockpiles are non-permanent members India, (elected to UNSC for 2011-12) said to have 60-80 nuclear weapons, and neighbor Pakistan (2012-13), estimated to have a slightly higher number.
North Korea, less than ten, and Israel, around 70, round out the countries that hold nuclear weapons. Neither is likely in the near future to garner enough support in the UN General Assembly to get elected to temporary membership of the council.
While the P5 are among the 190 countries that’ve signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan haven’t (Pyongyang withdrew from the treaty in 2003).
South Africa, also a non-permanent member of the council, in 1989 became the first and only state to voluntarily give up its nuclear arms program - which at the time consisted of six weapons.
The U.N. Security Council discuss nuclear disarmament at
this April 19, 2012 meeting (UN Photo).
North Korea Tells UN Security Council of ‘Dastardly Tricks’ by US
North Korea’s UN mission has fired off a missive to the Security Council complaining the United States of “hatching all sorts of dastardly tricks” and making a “brigandish demand” of the council to condemn Pyongyang’s recent failed launch of a satellite.
The letter, addressed to the President of the Security Council - which happens to be US ambassador Susan Rice this month, states that North Korea showed “to the maximum, from A to Z” that its intention to launch the satellite was entirely for peaceful purposes, “and aroused the sympathy of the broad world public.”
Yet, the letter goes on, the council allowed itself to be “abused, under the pressure of high-handed and arbitrary practices of the United States.” The resolutions that the council said North Korea violated [1718 & 1874] are, according to the letter, “the height of illegality, faked up at random, disregarding even universally accepted international law.”
Read the full letter here
Brig´and`ish
adj - Like a brigand or freebooter; robberlike.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, pub’d 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
UNSC Give Go Ahead to Deploy 300 Unarmed Observers to Monitor Ceasefire in Syria
The Security Council on Saturday, April 21, voted unanimously (as expected now that Russia’s on board) to send up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria to monitor the ceasefire announced on April 12, a ceasefire that that has been widely violated by Syrian forces, according to Kofi Annan’s briefing to the council on April 24.
To date, there are 11 observers on the ground, UN peacekeeping chief Henri Ladsous told the council, and it will take up to one month for the first 100 monitors to deploy. The observers currently on the ground are from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Morocco, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland, according to UN reporter Daniel Hernandez.
The Irish government announced on Tuesday that it had approved the deployment of six members of its defence forces to join the UN mission in Syria.
Agreement Signed Between U.N. and Syrian Government on Terms of Deployment for Observer Mission
Syria’s U.N. envoy, Bashar Jaafari, sits opposite Ban Ki-moon at the April 19 signing of an agreement between the United Nations and the Syrian government on the terms of deployment for an unarmed observer force (UNSMIS) to monitor an agreed ceasefire. (courtesy: UN Photo)
Ban Ki-moon Proposes 300 Unarmed Obsevers for Supervision Mission in Syria
Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said he has asked the Security Council to authorize the deployment of 300 unarmed observers to Syria for a supervision mission to monitor the precarious ceasefire despite “deeply troubling evidence” that Syrian troops have not ceased all violence. Ban’s proposal is that the observers be deployed “over a period weeks, in approximately ten locations.” The name of the proposed operation is the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS). The U.N. chief said there is no agreement yet with Syria on using U.N. helicopters and airplanes. The Syrian government told him they will be responsible for transporting the observers and assured him that the monitors will have free mobility. “I hope they will keep their promise,” Ban said.
UN armored vehicles are unloaded from an Italian aircraft
carrier in Beruit on April 17 for use by advance observer mission
in Syria. (Courtesy: UN Photo)
UNSC Adopt Resolution 2042 Authorizing Advance Observer Mission to Syria, Draft Text Watered Down
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday adopted resolution 2042 authorizing the immediate deployment of up to 30 unarmed military observers to begin monitoring the fragile ceasefire in Syria that commenced on April 12.
The adopted text uses weaker language and makes additional references to the opposition than the earlier draft. The resolution deletes a reference to “further measures” if the Syrian government does not comply and instead says it intends to “assess the implementation of this resolution and to consider further *steps* as appropriate” and deletes reference to the Syrian government’s compliance. It also no longer “demands” that the Syrian government withdraw troops and heavy weapons to barracks, instead it “calls upon” the authorities to undertake such moves.
The resolution no longer condemns the “widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities,” instead it condemns the “widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities” and adds “as well as any human rights violations by armed groups.”
Deployment of the full observer mission (200-250 observers) will require a separate council resolution and this is expected after Secretary-General Ban sends a proposal to the council which is due no later than April 18. The resolution asks Ban Ki-moon to consult with the Syrian government on his proposal to establish the mission - the earlier text didn’t.
Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin tells reporters
ahead of Security Council meeting that
he is satisfied with the text and will vote
for its adoption. Moscow had vetoed two
previous council resolutions on Syria.
US Envoy Rice Says ‘Many’ Changes in Revised Draft - Vote 11am Sat.
There are “many” changes in the revised draft resolution authorizing an advance mission of up to 30 observers to monitor the Syria ceasefire, U.S. envoy Susan Rice said on Friday. Earlier Russia put forward its own shorter text, with Amb. Vitaly Churkin saying the West/Arab draft was too detailed and did not make demands of the opposition. A vote is scheduled for 11am tomorrow, Sat. April 14 (which, coincidentally, is also Syria U.N. envoy Bashar Jaafari’s birthday) on the draft sponsored by the U.S. Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Colombia and Morocco.
UNSC Draft Resolution Authorizing Advance Syria Observer Mission
The draft resolution authorizes an advance team of up to 30 unarmed observers to monitor the ceasefire. It demands that the Syrian government “guarantee the mission’s ability to interview, freely or in private, any individual in any region of Syria, and to receive communications from any individual, group of individuals or body in Syria.”
The draft text also demands that the authorities “ensure full and unimpeded freedom of movement throughout Syria for all mission personnel, including access, without prior notice, to any place or establishment that the mission deems necessary to carry out its mandate.”
Syria Update - Fragile Ceasefire in Effect: Annan issues statement, briefs Security Council
A ceasefire came into effect at 6am Damascus time today, as part of U.N.-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan. Annan said it appears to be holding and he is requesting that the Security Council quickly authorize an observer mission to monitor the truce, which is also supposed to mark the beginning of a political process between the Syrian government and the opposition. Other elements of his plan include unhindered humanitarian access, freedom of association and the right to protest, the release of arbitrarily detained protesters, and a non-discriminatory visa policy for journalists.
In a briefing to the council on Thursday, Annan told the 15-nation body that there were some violations of the truce in the hours after it came into effect but that this was normal in the early stages of a ceasefire as both sides test each other, U.S. envoy Susan Rice said. Annan also told the council in a closed briefing that the Syrian government was not in full compliance of his peace plan as it has not withdrawn all troops and heavy weapons from urban areas, as it was required to do by April 10, she said . He also urged the council to authorize the deployment of an advance team of some 30 observers to monitor the ceasefire. Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that authorization may come as early as Friday. Rice, president of the council for April, said urgent negotiations on the text of a draft resolution would take place Thursday afternoon.
The full observer mission, if it happens (if the truce holds), is expected to consist of about 200-250 unarmed monitors to be re-deployed from existing peacekeeping missions in the Golan Heights, Lebanon and, possibly, Sudan.
