The rest of the world is coming out from under our thumb.
Efforts by the Trump administration to marshal a muscular international response to Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protesters appeared to backfire on Friday, as members of the United Nations Security Council instead used a special session called by the United States to lecture the American ambassador on the proper purpose of the body and to reaffirm support for the Iran nuclear agreement.
NYT
A big (deserved) middle finger. Is Haley still "taking names"?
It was an afternoon of high diplomatic theater that began with a passionate denunciation of Iran’s “oppressive government” by the American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, and ended with the Iranian ambassador delivering a lengthy history of popular revolt in the United States — from the violent demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 to the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.
Touché.
The Russian ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya [...] asked rhetorically why the Security Council had not taken up the issue of Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Mo., which were at times also met with a violent police response.
[...]
Council members did, one by one, condemn the Iranian government’s response during more than a week of protests. As of Friday, more than 20 people had been killed and hundreds had been arrested. The authorities have blocked access to social media and have blamed foreign “enemies” for instigating the unrest.
[...]
But there was evidence of a mini-revolt brewing within the Security Council chamber, not only among traditional adversaries like Russia and China, but also among close allies like France and Sweden. Many seemed to fear that the outspoken criticism by the Americans was simply a pretext to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, which President Trump has long desired to scrap.
It is not precisely clear what Ms. Haley hoped to achieve by convening the session on Friday, which was not previously scheduled.
She's definitely a Trumpland denizen. They're not known for logic and reason.
“The real reason for convening today’s meeting is not an attempt to protect human rights or promote the interests of the Iranian people, but rather as a veiled attempt to use the current moment to continue to undermine” the Iranian deal, Mr. Nebenzya said.
I'd say that's a pretty good assessment. It was, after all, a Trump campaign point.
Mr. Trump himself conflated the protests with the Iran nuclear deal this week, arguing that financial benefits received by the Iranian authorities as part of the accord had fueled the corruption that the country’s people were now protesting.
At the Security Council on Friday, most members insisted that these two issues were separate.
“It needs to be crystal clear to the international community that the situation in Iran does not belong on the agenda of the Security Council,” said Sacha Sergio Llorenty Solíz, the Bolivian ambassador.
Sweden’s representative, Irina Schoulgin Nyoni, concurred: “We have our reservations on the format and timing of this session.”
Haley, who never mentioned the nuclear accord, focused her remarks on the protests that have killed at least 20 people and led to as many as 1,000 arrests. She said the demonstrations were a “spontaneous expression of fundamental human rights” against an “oppressive government” that prioritizes militias and terror groups abroad over its own people.
China and Russia -- which seldom like to discuss political protests at the UN -- led a group of countries that said the demonstrations were a domestic affair that didn’t threaten international security and shouldn’t be taken up. China’s envoy said that if Haley’s logic were to be followed consistently, the Security Council should have held hearings after the 2014 racial protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in 2011.
As the Security Council debate was underway, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif published a statement calling the hearing a foreign policy “blunder by the U.S.”
Bloomberg
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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