Download "Security Council: Upholding the United Nations Charter (8699th meeting)"

LIVE Security Council Open debate on the importance of upholding the UN Charter for the maintenance of international peace & security. To watch the meeting LIVE in the other UN languages (Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic) go to the UN Web TV website: http://webtv.un.org 🗓️ 9 January 2020 🕙 10:00AM Eastern Time US & Ca 🔗 http://bit.ly/2N8NWMc 💬 #UNSC @antonioguterres @UN Briefers: The UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders. Presidential Statement adopted at the beginning of the Security Council meeting: http://bit.ly/2T9mPVo During the open debate, participants are invited to discuss the following questions and issues: (a) The importance of upholding the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security; (b) How the Security Council can discharge the crucial role of safeguarding and enhancing respect for the Charter; (c) How Member States, the United Nations system, regional and subregional organizations and the Security Council can better employ the tools provided by the Charter. Participants may wish to consider, among other things, the need to raise public awareness of and increase training on Charter-related issues, as well as ways and means to deeply instil the culture of adherence to the Charter in policymaking processes, enhance dialogue on sharing best practices and lessons learned in upholding the Charter and improve collaboration between the Council and key actors, such as the General Assembly, the Secretary-General, regional organizations and other stakeholders, in order to promote adherence to the Charter. ---------------------------- Iran’s Ambassador Mahid Takht Ravanchi today (9 Jan) told the Security Council that “the world is at a crossroads” as “one unhinged regime is frantically clamoring to turn back time,” meaning “more damaging American unilateralism in defiance of international norms and law.” Most recently, Ravanchi said, “a dastardly targeted assassination of the heroes who were the nightmare of groups such as ISIS” as well as “more and more threats and attacks against the people of Iran and other sovereign nations in utter disregard of the Charter.” Ravanchi was reading a statement by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was denied a US visa and could not attend the meeting. He said the United States “now even seeks to emulate the war crimes of Daesh, menacing the cultural heritage of the millennia-old civilization of Iran.” The Ambassador said Iran’s “action against an air base in Iraq from which the cowardly armed attack against Martyr Soleimani was launched, was a measured and proportionate response to a terrorist attack, in the exercise of our inherent right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter.” Ravanchi pointed out that “this rogue US regime has withdrawn from several landmark accords, including the Paris Agreement, the INF Treaty, and not least, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” known as the JCPOA. He said the US “in an open affront to this very Council, has involved unprecedented and unlawful US punishment of anyone who attempts to comply with Resolution 2231, which unequivocally endorses the JCPOA.” The statement was delivered during a Council meeting convened by the Vietnamese delegation on “Upholding the United Nations Charter to Maintain International Peace and Security.”