Ex-New Zealand premier: UN Security Council 'in crisis'

ANKARA

The United Nations Security Council is in “crisis”, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who campaigned in 2016 to lead the international body, has said.

“I think the security council [is] in crisis, deep crisis, partly because we are in something like a new cold war,” Clark, who is in capital Ankara as part of annual Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, told Anadolu Agency.

“So there are very serious issues like Syria, like a number of others, which the Security Council has not been tackled effectively at all,” she said.

A documentary titled “My Year with Helen”, which focuses on the 68-year-old politician’s 2016 campaign to be elected as UN secretary general and is directed by Gaylene Preston, was screened at the festival.

“There is a lot of international concern, which I share about the implications of the American decision to walk away from Iran nuclear deal, which is a Security Council endorsed-deal,” Clark said.

Under a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and international powers, Tehran was provided billions of dollars in relief from financial sanctions in exchange for the imposition of a robust sanctions regime.

However earlier this month, President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal.

“This is a very bad sign,” she said.

“I see that in last 24 hours the U.S. has blocked a draft resolution on this terrible situation of the killings of Palestinian protesters and yesterday [May 14] was a very bad day with dozens killed and close to 3,000 injured,” she added.

On Monday, at least 62 Palestinian demonstrators were martyred -- and hundreds more injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along their side of the Gaza-Israel fence.

“But the Security Council has not allowed to address it,” Clark said.

“This is a crisis. It is a crisis that was made possible in the Security Council by the veto, the veto has given in 1945 to five permanent members.

“Anyone of them can say ‘we are not discussing that,’ ‘we are not doing that’.

“Here you have some of the most critical issues of our time that which cannot be addressed effectively by the Security Council. So, it is a crisis,” she said.

Clark has served as New Zealand’s prime minister for three terms and has worked as head of the UN Development Programme for eight years.