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The United Nations General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace that affect the international community, voted 152-5, on Friday, on a resolution concerning "the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East". The resolution states that Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency's purview. The resolution, which is submitted every year to the UNGA in New York, was submitted by Egypt and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and 19 counties including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates. Canada, Israel,...

In an October 9, 2021 article in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News, Lebanese media figure Baria Alamuddin writes that Hizbullah continues its globe-spanning drug trafficking activities, now using West African countries as major transit states for its drug shipments. She notes that Hizbullah and Syria, both sponsored by Iran, continue to bolster their status as the world's major source of the amphetamine-based drug Captagon. However, since Saudi Arabia banned the import of Lebanese produce earlier this year, Hizbullah has had to divert its Captagon shipments through transit countries to obscure the country of origin. West Africa has become a...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

SNIPPET - quote: www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl1955.aspx Treasury Announces New Sanctions Against Iran Actions Target Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Proliferation Activities 5/23/2013     WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury is taking action today against 20 individuals and entities for their involvement in Iran’s nuclear and missile proliferation networks and Iran’s continued attempts to circumvent sanctions. These networks are responsible for moving supplies and providing essential services to Iran’s clandestine nuclear and weapons programs. These actions are designed to increase pressure on the Iranian regime by tightening sanctions against Iran’s energy sector and exposing key proliferation related networks that span the...

SNIPPET: "Actually, two have been convicted by a jury for using their nightclubs to launder the proceeds of drug and weapons deals, one was acquitted of money laundering but has pled guilty to a drug trafficking charge, and one of those convicted of money laundering has now been charged with tax evasion. And that's not to mention the failure to pay state liquor taxes and fees, the unsolved murder of a one-time business partner, and various immigration-related issues. Money was transferred in to a relative and known Hizballah operative in Lebanon, and there are strong ties to the Lebanese expat...

As Tuareg rebels battle radical Islamists with heavy weapons for control of the northern Mali city of Gao, Mali and the other 15 nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are planning a military offensive designed to drive both groups out of northern Mali in an effort to re-impose order in the region and prevent the six-month old conflict from destabilizing the entire region. So far, however, operational planning has not been detailed enough to gain the approval of the UN Security Council for authorization of a Chapter Seven military intervention, leaving ECOWAS and the African Union...

Abidjan — The Côte d'Ivoire government is demolishing shops and makeshift stalls in a bid to clean up the main city, Abidjan, but the operation is causing concern about how those affected will cope as the country is still reeling from post-election turmoil, observers say. Many of those affected had been chased off public property in the past and "Operation Clean Nation" - enforcing a decree dating from 2008 - has not come as a shock; still, hundreds of families have now lost their livelihoods. "When you look at the condition of those [being forced away], it's very clear that...

(Reuters) - The top U.N. human rights official expressed concern on Wednesday over acts of violence allegedly carried out by members of Ivory Coast's new army, including reports of summary executions, rape and torture. The former rebel Forces Republicaines Cote d'Ivoire (FRCI) is now the backbone of the west African state's armed forces after the ousting of ex-president Laurent Gbagbo two months ago. "Lack of discipline and violence on the part of the newly established army, the FRCI, which is composed of several different groups with no clear command structure, are ... of serious concern," U.N. High Commissioner for Human...

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – French forces wearing night vision goggles rappelled from a helicopter to rescue the Japanese ambassador and seven others, France's foreign minister said Thursday, as Ivory Coast's strongman leader remained in an underground bunker amid the fighting.

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

We are witnessing an Islamic takeover of the Ivory Coast. And the French (and the UN, US, and Europe) are helping them. Sick. The reportage on the Ivory Coast election is biased and Islamophliac. Centurion has a good report here: The Ivory Coast joins the ummah. What this article and others like it don’t tell you is that we are witnessing one of those watershed moments in history: Ivory Coast is about to toggle from a (mostly) Christian country to a Muslim country. The winner of the election is a Muslim — the head of the Muslim rebel forces in...

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire. Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps. The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire. Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps. The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site. They came to light only...

Lettre ouverte à Kofi Annan H.E. Kofi Annan Secretary General of the United Nations United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017 Fax: 212 963-1921 Dear Secretary General, I am writing to you as an American of Ivorian origin to express my deep concern, and indeed the deep concern of many in the Ivorian community in the US, over the violent attacks of France on Côte d’Ivoire and its civilian population, and the seeming acquiescence of the world body you run in the French action. France claims that it destroyed the Ivorian Airforce, Government buildings and other structures, and fired on...

PARIS (Reuters) - France has ordered more troops to Ivory Coast to protect French citizens after nine French soldiers and a U.S. aid worker were killed in a government bombing raid and Ivory Coast troops fired on French forces. French President Jacques Chirac ordered the Ivory Coast planes involved in the Saturday airstrike destroyed and a defense source said French forces would also destroy five Ivorian military helicopters, leaving the country with only one helicopter. Mobs of machete-wielding pro-government supporters rampaged through Abidjan, furious at the French destruction of the planes. Plumes of smoke rose from the plush Cocody suburb....

ABIDJAN (AFP) - Armed men wearing army uniforms interrupted Ivory's Coast national TV to demand the resignation of the army chief and that French peacekeepers leave the troubled country within 48 hours. The men, who said they were soldiers speaking on behalf of the west African state's entire armed forces, insisted that "this is not a coup d'etat." They said they were responding to events in which scores of pro-government protestors and soldiers skirmished Saturday with French troops policing a demilitarized zone separating the south from the rebel-held north. The announcement on national TV -- and a similar attempt reportedly...

Like many of you, I have been struggling to understand why the French have behaved as they do regarding the United States. As this is one subject fraught with opinion but very little fact, a bit of digging seemed to be in order. Some of the trail led to Africa, where France has continued its century-long, "sphere of influence" (read as "assumed ownership") of parts of that continent. France has regularly behaved in a such a well-documented, murderous manner that, were it the United States, it would prompt an unheard-of level of universal international condemnation.

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council on Tuesday to quickly fund a peacekeeping mission in strife-torn Ivory Coast that has been stalled by U.S. objections to its price tag. A council resolution drafted by France nearly four weeks ago proposed setting up a U.N. operation with 255 military and civilian staff in the West African nation, which has divided along ethnic lines after months of civil war despite a peace deal reached in January. But the resolution was blocked after Washington objected to its projected one-year price-tag of $27 million and sent...