AMBASSADOR HALEY: Good afternoon.
I was told there would be 30 of you. This is more than 30 so.
But we're glad to have you here. I wanted to touch base with you because
a lot is obviously going on in the world. And I've been out of town, so we wanted to
just give you the opportunity to know what we know.
And - and so I'll give you some updates, obviously on Vienna and UNIFIL,
and then we'll open it up to any questions that you might have.
I had a very productive visit to the IAEA in Vienna this week.
Director General Amano and his staff were gracious and very generous with their time.
He and his team are total professionals and true experts in their field.
They have a very strong verification program in Iran. I was pleased to hear about all
that they are doing. Having said that, as good as the IAEA is, it can only be as good as
what they are permitted to see.
Iran has publicly declared that it will not allow access to military sites.
But the JCPOA makes no distinction between military and non-military sites.
There are also numerous undeclared sites that have not been inspected yet.
That's a problem.
I have good confidence in the IAEA, but they are dealing with a country that has
a clear history of lying and pursuing covert nuclear programs.
So we are encouraging the IAEA to use all the authorities they have and to pursue every angle possible
with the JCPOA. And we will continue to support the IAEA in that process.
Another important issue we are dealing with now here in New York is the renewal of UNIFIL
in South Lebanon, which is expected to expire the end of this month.
Bottom line is UNIFIL is not doing its job effectively as we need it to.
We talk a lot around here about prevention of conflict. It's true there's been no conflict
in South Lebanon since 2006. But that's not the same as peace and security.
Since 2006 there has been a massive flow of illegal weapons to Hizballah, mostly smuggled in by Iran.
That is not prevention of war; that is preparation for war.
UNIFIL is supposed to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces to stop the violations
in Resolution 1701, or at least report of them.
Yet we have not seen one single instance that UNIFIL is doing that.
To prevent the next conflict, UNIFIL has to get more active in stopping weapons to terrorists.
That's why we're trying to do -- and that's what we're trying to change in the mandate renewal.
We are not looking to change the mandate itself; we're looking to include language
that clearly directs UNIFIL to do what it should have been doing for years.
Those who object to that need to explain why they are prepared to give terrorists a free hand
to arm themselves and destabilize the region.
Look at what Hizballah has already done.
They have committed assassinations and acts of terror inside Lebanon.
They have sent thousands of fighters to Syria to prop up Assad and terrorize the Syrian people.
They openly threaten Israel.
They are an Iranian proxy.
Hizballah is a terrorist organization that is very destabilizing to the region.
It's time the Security Council puts teeth in the UNIFIL operation.
Now I know our friends in France have concerns.
We are thankful, and they do have many troops in UNIFIL.
And there's a long history that they've had with Lebanon. We respect that.
We've been in discussions with France for weeks and will continue those discussions
as we get to the mandate before it expires.
But while I do appreciate the French perspective,
what I find totally baffling is the view of the UNIFIL Commander, General Beary.
He seems to be the only person in South Lebanon who is blind to what Hizballah is doing.
General Beary says there are no Hizballah weapons.
That's an embarrassing lack of understanding on what's going on around him.
You don't need to see the numerous intelligence reports that document that Hizballah arms build-up
-- that the Hizballah arms build-up to know that it's there.
Hizballah openly brags about their weapons. They parade them before TV cameras.
The Secretary-General's reports have confirmed this.
For the UNIFIL Commander to deny it is --
has any proof shows that we need to have changes in UNIFIL.
And so with that, I will open it up to any questions that you have.
Yes.
QUESTION: Thank you, Ambassador. I'm Margaret Bashir from Voice of America.
In Washington that we just saw the executive order on Venezuelan sanctions was just signed.
For the first time it reaches the oil sector in Venezuela.
Could you talk to us about what you think the impact of these sanctions will be,
and how you hope they will change President Maduro's political calculus?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: It's a strong message for the people of Venezuela.
And it's a strong message to Maduro.
We are not going to tolerate the dictatorship he's trying to create, and we're not going to respect
the sham assembly. And so at this point we felt like because we're not seeing any progress towards
lifting up the Venezuelan people, and we see more of the power grab that Maduro is trying to do,
the sanctions were another option to send him a message.
Yes.
QUESTION: We saw an article in the Washington Post about cutting the financial aid of Egypt.
Do you have any concerns about the relation between Egypt and North Korea?
And did you cut that financial aid because of this -- the relation with North Korea
or because of the situation of democracy and human rights?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: So we have a good relationship with Egypt,
and it's one that the United States wants to continue to hold.
I think what you're referring to is the money that was pulled back due to the vote
that they had on the NGOs. You know we have always said that we needed
to have the NGOs have the right to be involved, to act, and to be a part of that.
And so we've expressed our concerns to Egypt. They didn't correct that.
And so this was a reaction to that.
QUESTION: (inaudible) Do you have any concerns about that?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: I mean I think we've said all we need to say about North Korea,
in terms of the fact that we're obviously watching what is happening there.
We're waiting to see, you know, if they're ready to actually destabilize -- or denuclearize --
what they have. And then talks can take place.
But we're you know I think we're still watching and waiting.
Yes.
QUESTION: (inaudible) and now on Iran. What is the next step that you forsee will happen?
Are you trying to convince the IAEA to be more aggressive, to have a new language?
What's your aim on Iran?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: So we didn't go to the IAEA to tell them to do anything.
I went to the IAEA to ask questions.
What have you looked at? What else have you not looked at?
Have you had any issues?
So it was more just to find out what the status of the situation is.
And also to support them -- to make sure they had the resources to be able to do the job.
This is a huge job that's been put on the IAEA. And while they have amazing experts,
we wanted to make sure they have enough of them.
And they have enough of the equipment that they need.
So it really was a fact-finding mission, and I will go to D.C. on Monday
and report that back to all the things that we found out from there.
Yes.
QUESTION: Hi, Rosalyn Jordan with Al-Jazeera English. Good to see you.
AMBASSADOR HALEY: Nice to see you.
QUESTION: On Yemen, despite the Saudi Ambassador's reassurances this week that
the Coalition is trying to avoid targeting civilians in their fight against the Houthi rebels,
at least 55 civilians have been killed just in the last three days because of coalition airstrikes.
Obviously the Saudi coalition is under a lot of pressure to do better.
Will the U.S. put more pressure on the Saudi Coalition
to be more careful in carrying out these airstrikes?
And is the U.S. promising to not lobby the U.N.
as it's preparing its report on children and armed conflict?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: I can tell you Yemen is something we are extremely concerned about.
I personally had meetings with the Saudis and (inaudible) last week in terms of
(inaudible) data, of the airspace, of trying to get the cranes in -- working on all of those things.
We're extremely concerned. But we have a good con --
We have a good flowing conversation with the Saudis to make sure that they understand
what our concerns are. And to talk about where we go from here.
Yes.
QUESTION: (inaudible) report by the IAEA about the annual reports saying that North Korea is stepping up
its nuclear reactor. Do you have any additional comment on
that report that was just published today?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: It's a concern, and it shows that North Korea hasn't back down,
they haven't stopped what they're doing, and it is the reason why we continue to have
our guard up when it comes to North Korea.
QUESTION: (inaudible) report came out and basically said that the UN had done no wrong
and seemed to be asking the DRC to investigate.
What does the U.S. want to have done about the death of the two experts,
Zaida Catalán and Michael Sharp?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: We've asked the Secretary-General for an independent investigation.
The last thing we need to do is leave it up to the DRC to do the investigation.
And so we strongly believe, not just for those two who served and sacrificed, but for their families
and for the UN community to understand exactly what happened and make sure
we get down to the bottom of it.
So we are working with Sweden.
We're going to continue to push.
We're going to continue to fight for an independent investigation.
QUESTION: (inaudible) so just some quickies.
Timing is everything. The Venezuelan foreign minister is in the building.
Have they asked to meet? Would you -- Should the U.S. grant a visa to
President Maduro if he wants to come for the General Assembly?
And which president will show up at the General Assembly?
President Trump with a teleprompter or without? What would you prefer?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: See you like killed it with the last question. You get that right?
Okay, first of all no we have not been asked to meet with the Venezuelan Foreign Minister.
The second thing was -- I don't know about that with Maduro.
So that's I haven't heard anything about that.
And I think you're going to have President Trump show up at the General Assembly.
And I think you're going to have the president who did the bombing on Syria
from the chemical weapons.
The one that has gone against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq at record pace.
I think the one that has made a very strong, smart change to Afghanistan
to show that we mean business.
That's the President Trump you're going to see.
And that's the President Trump that we're going to continue to hear
when it comes to these policy issues.
QUESTION: Are you happy with the current French draft resolution on the renewal of UNIFIL?
And do you want that, to insert the language as forceful to address the daily Israeli violations?
I know you are very much adamant against Iran and Hizballah, but you are not talking at all
about the Israeli violations to the Lebanese sovereignty, daily. Can you address that?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: So what I can tell you is with UNIFIL we are very concerned.
I'm concerned because I was there.
I was on the border. I saw it.
You know when you look at Israel, they are looking at thousands of rockets looking at back at them.
There is a serious problem when you have Hizballah who has been bragging
about their weapons in front of the TVs,
have continued to be smuggling arms into Syria.
We've seen everything they do with Iran.
It's a real concern. And our goal with the UN is always peace and security.
And we always talk about prevention
Watching what Hizballah is doing in South Lebanon is not prevention.
It is preparation for war.
It is a matter of time, and we need to step up now.
And I can't imagine anyone wanting to do a technical roll over of UNIFIL
when they know that we are seeing a lot of violations taking place.
And we don't need to be giving terrorists a pass.
Yes.
QUESTION: (inaudible) Following up on the sanctions against Venezuela, I wonder
if the U.S. government will also meet these new economic sanctions with renewed swift action
on the diplomatic level to meet what we saw today from the U.S. government?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: In terms of meeting them --
QUESTION: -- of new diplomatic actions against Venezuela maybe --
AMBASSADOR HALEY: I think what you're saying is, you're seeing diplomatic,
financial situations that we are trying to work with Venezuela.
We don't agree with anything that Maduro is doing.
But we've said that for months. And what we've said is the way he's treating his people,
the way he's trying to create a dictatorship, the Sham assembly that we have,
is not anything that the U.S. can support.
So we have had no choice but to turn around and do the sanctions to get their attention.
We hope that they will see the error of their ways.
We hope they will go back to a democracy; which is what we hope for Venezuela.
And we hope that for the Venezuelan people.
QUESTION: (inaudible) We know that President -- Vice President Pence was just in Latin America.
He was also in Miami and met with some of the community leaders at a church.
He tweeted this morning about Venezuela and it has been something very important
for the Vice President and the President as well.
Yourself from the United Nations have brought up that subject here at the Security Council.
Do you think it's a way to try to get the United Nations involved, to try to
get an envoy, to try to get a humanitarian group that can do something about it?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: I think that we're trying to see exactly where we go.
You know what we wanted initially was to rely on the OAS to deal with this.
But obviously they weren't able to, and then Venezuela left the OAS.
And then we tried to bring up an emergency Security Council meeting
because we were very concerned..
And you know we had some reactions from the Security Council.
They didn't think this was about peace and security. I think we can all attest to the fact
that it is about peace and security.
We've done the sanctions, and now we'll see if there's anything else
in the UN that we need to do. But this is all moving forward.
Last question. Yes.
QUESTION: (inaudible)
Are you thinking about putting new sanctions against North Korea
or putting more pressure on them?
AMBASSADOR HALEY: Is this the reports about the chemical weapons?
QUESTION: I think there's reports about that too.
AMBASSADOR HALEY: So we haven't had a chance to look at that.
And we don't want to talk about any drafted reports yet.
But certainly we're going to continue to watch this.
North Korea has been a situation we haven't taken our eye off of at all since the last ICBM testing.
And so we're going to continue to stay strong.
We're gonna continue to stay aggressive, and we're gonna continue to hope
that they do want to come to the table and talk by stopping all the nuclearization
and stopping all of the irresponsible actions that they've taken.
All right, thank you all very much. Appreciate it.