[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[cyrus]

Rice Seeks to Advance U.S. Policy Goals

September 12, 2005
The Associated Press
The New York Times
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-United-Nations.html


UNITED NATIONS -- The assembly of more than 170 world leaders to mark the United Nations' 60th birthday gives Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a unique opportunity to advance U.S. foreign policy goals on several difficult fronts.

Success is by no means assured. While the United States is the largest contributor and the world's only real superpower, it cannot count on the United Nations for automatic support.

Rice's lobbying, and President Bush's appearance before the world body Wednesday, come at a moment when the United States is looking unusually vulnerable to foreign eyes following Hurricane Katrina's devastation and international opposition to the war it is leading in Iraq.

Rice's drive to pressure Iran to resume negotiations on its nuclear program is a key test. Any U.S. resolution in the U.N. Security Council to censure Iran or to impose sanctions runs the risk of being vetoed.

So Rice is appealing openly to China and Russia, which have veto power, to join in sending a ''unified message'' to Tehran.

Russia remains dubious about having the council take up the issue. On Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko called it a hasty step.

Rice is using the convergence of world leaders to try to advance two Mideast goals: pressure on Syria to keep hands off Lebanon and to spur Israel and the Palestinians to use the momentum of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza to move toward creation of a Palestinian state.

She plans to meet with Arab and European leaders on Syria as a U.N. inquiry explores whether Syria played a role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafil Hariri last February in Beirut.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has canceled plans to attend U.N. sessions.

On Mideast peacemaking, the goal of a Palestinian state already has the support of most U.N. members. Rice will meet with U.N., European and Russian officials who joined the United States in devising a blueprint or roadmap for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

On another front, U.N. reform, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton and Rice are seeking management changes and new approaches on terrorism and human rights. The outlook is uncertain.

Rice has a heavy schedule this week, meeting with dozens of foreign ministers. She also is budgeting considerable time for a round of media interviews.

[Oppenheimer]

Dear Cyrus,

For what it's worth, I pulled this off #10 Downing's website, from the morning briefing of the 12th.....

Asked what hopes the Prime Minister had for the UN Summit, the PMOS said that it was an important summit. As we had set out last week, we were hopeful that it would adopt a new resolution on terrorism which would not just set out commitments on fighting terrorism but also commit countries to take action against the incitement of terrorism. Discussions on that were continuing and were progressing well. Other issues included the reform of the UN itself, in particular setting up a Human Rights Council and reinforcing the responsibility to protect citizens from abuses of human rights within countries; we were also looking for progress on the peace building commission. Reform of the Security Council itself was an important issue, but that might be a slightly longer term project as the Prime Minister had said himself. Asked if the anti-terrorism resolution would be a British motion, the PMOS said that we had been heavily involved in drawing it up. In terms of sponsorship he didn't want to get ahead of the game. We were hopeful of progress. Asked if by the end of this week we would have an agreed definition of terrorism, the PMOS said that as he had said we were aiming for a Security Council resolution which committed countries to not only fight terrorism but also take action against incitement to terrorism.

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