Ambassador Susan E. Rice, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, delivers remarks at the Security Council Open Debate on the Middle East in New York, New York, October 15, 2012. [Go to http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/199137.htm for a text transcript.]

About the Author: Kurtis Cooper serves as the Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

We are about two thirds of the way through the United States’ April Presidency of the UN Security Council. It has been quite a month. Syria, North Korea, Sudan and South Sudan, Mali, Guinea-Bissau — the Council has been working furiously on a broad range of issues spanning the entire globe.

However, as Ambassador Rice has repeatedly… more »

Ambassador Susan E. Rice participates in a LiveAtState event for youth journalists to discuss the work of the United Nations Security Council, New York, NY, April 19, 2012.

About the Author: Alex McPhillips serves as Press Officer and Associate Director for Digital Media at the U.S. Mission to the UN in New York.

When Ambassador Susan Rice assumed the rotating monthly Presidency of the UN Security Council from the United Kingdom this week, she began by taking a question on Twitter.

“The world is shrinking,” Ambassador Rice said recently. In a world of freely moving information, we also face rapidly evolving threats that can just as easily cross borders. As President, Ambassador Rice is using her agenda-setting power to focus the Council’s attention on such 21st century challenges, from the proliferation of nuclear materials to illicit arms flows to humanitarian crises.

Ambassador Rice… more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks before the United Nations Security Council session on the situation in Syria, at the United Nations in New York, NY, January 31, 2012.

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State

Washington, DC January 30, 2012

The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people. In the past few days we have seen intensified Syrian security operations all around the country which have killed hundreds of civilians. The government has shelled civilian areas with mortars and tank fire and brought down whole buildings on top of their occupants. The violence has escalated to the point that the Arab League has had to suspend its monitoring mission. The regime has failed to meet its commitments to the Arab League to halt its acts of violence, withdraw its military forces from residential areas, allow journalists and monitors to operate freely and release prisoners arrested because of the current unrest.

The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security. The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.

Tomorrow, I will attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria where the international community should send a clear message of support to the Syrian people: we stand with you. The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is unsustainable. The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.

In a statement today, the United Nations Security Council condemned the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said, “This is an important and strong statement. It was long overdue.”

Ambassador Rice continued, “…I think the Assad regime has been counting on the fact that the Security Council would be unable to speak. And that they would not be condemned. And that they would have protectors and defenders that would make it impossible for that condemnation to emerge. And surely they must be quite surprised and disappointed by the outcome.

“And hopefully, the people of Syria will get the sense that there are many… more »