FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Russia’s Nebenzia: ‘Do You Understand the Dangerous Threshold to Which You Are Bringing the World?’
April 9, 2018 (EIRNS)—Today’s three-hour session of the UN Security Council, was requested by Russia, under the topic, “Threats to International Peace and Security.” It was used as a stage for wild accusations against Russia and Syria by the British, U.S., French, and Dutch Ambassadors, before which, however, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia gave a scorching, detailed presentation against the lies. He made the fundamental point explicitly to the whole chamber, that we are at an extreme danger point. He said, “I will ask a rhetorical question: Do you understand the dangerous threshold to which you are bringing the world?”
Nebenzia drew attention to the repeated warnings from Russia and Syria to the United Nations and to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), that terrorists were plotting to stage a chemical warfare incident, to cast blame on Damascus. “You’ve heard these warnings.” But nothing was done.
The trio of U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, British Ambassador Karen Pierce, and French Ambassador Francois Delattre, joined by the Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, outdid each other with lies and crude insults against Russia and Syria. Ambassador Pierce praised her country, the United Kingdom, for how it is conducting an “independent” investigation of the Skripal poisoning.
Haley conspicuously walked out when Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari began speaking. He reported on the present situation in Syria, asking pointedly about this morning’s missile strike on his nation, “Why not say Israel did the aggression?” Besides a short, eloquent report on past inactions by the UN, Ja’afari gave specifics about what Syria supplied to the UN and OPCW regarding plots the Damascus government found of terrorists having toxic weapons. Damascus sent 144 letters, as of April 1 this year, on this danger. But they didn’t even read them, nor act on them.
Ja’afari said,
“I announce that we want a fact-finding mission from the OPCW as soon as possible. We welcome this visit as soon as possible. I hope it does not have the same fate as the Ban Ki-moon March 2013 mission”
which did not arrive for “four months and 11 days.”
Ambassadors of several other nations provided sanity and gravity to the session, with such comments, as that from Ambassador Kairat Umarov from Kazakhstan. He asked, who else, besides the White Helmets has any report of this imputed chemical weapons incident in Douma? Umarov confirmed that there were reports from Syria and Russia that terrorists were planning a chemical attack, but their warnings were not heeded by international agencies.
Ambassador Tekeda Alemu of Ethiopia, besides calling for a fact-finding mission, addressed the international situation. He said that “trust among the major powers is low” and has grave implications for peace. It has “implications for sustainable development goals in the development sphere.” He spoke movingly about the need for a “global security environment.”
At the end of the session, Nebenzia, asking to speak again, made three points: 1) The Council Presidency has to keep Haley in line and not referring to legitimate governments such as Russia, as “regimes”; 2) The British so-called investigation into the Skripal poisoning is not an investigation, and he demolished Pierce’s assertion; 3) “We are moving to a dangerous threshold...it is not understood by any of our Western colleagues.”
