Video- President Obama Convenes Meeting Of UN Security Council

Streaming Live Video- President Obama Chairs the UN Security Council Meeting

UN Security Council Nations Agree to Condemn N. Korea's Rocket Launch

By GottaLaff

A message to L'il Kim:

Key Security Council nations reached agreement Saturday on a statement that would condemn North Korea's rocket launch and toughen sanctions against the reclusive communist nation, council diplomats said.

The five permanent veto-wielding members -- the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France -- and Japan met after Tokyo backed down from a demand that the Security Council adopt a new resolution, the strongest response from the U.N.'s most powerful body.

A presidential statement is considered a weaker reaction by the council. The draft statement condemns North Korea's April 5 rocket launch and makes clear that it was a violation of a Security Council resolution adopted after the North conducted a nuclear test in 2006 which bans any missile tests by the country, the diplomats said.

The statement calls for freezing the assets of companies or organizations involved in transactions related to the import or export of missiles, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, the diplomats said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations took place behind closed doors

China and Russia, the North Koreans' strongest allies, refused to go along with a new resolution, which the United States was also seeking. But while Japan kept insisting on a resolution, the U.S. indicated it would also accept a strong presidential statement from the council, the diplomats said. [...]

North Korea has warned that any move to censure it at the U.N. could prompt its withdrawal from the nuclear disarmament talks, which involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S.

A presidential statement must be approved by consensus, meaning that all 15 council members must approve it before it is read at a formal council meeting by its president. It becomes part of the council's official record, unlike a press statement. The U.S. and others argue that presidential statements, like resolutions, are legally binding. [...]

Under the draft, the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against North Korea would be given two weeks to agree on the companies, material and technologies to be banned, the diplomats said. If the committee failed to come up with a list, the Security Council itself would then come up with its own list, the diplomats said.

Documents linking Iran to nuclear weapons push may have been fabricated

By GottaLaff

There are so many TPC departments these days. This one is from the Department of Raised Eyebrows:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has obtained evidence suggesting that documents which have been described as technical studies for a secret Iranian nuclear weapons-related research program may have been fabricated. [...]

These technical papers, along with some correspondence related to the alleged secret Iranian program -- referred to by the IAEA as “alleged studies” -- have been the primary basis during 2008 for the insistence by the US-led international coalition pushing for sanctions against Iran that the Iranian case must be kept going in the United Nations Security Council.

Groundhog Day:

BUSH: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."