It was reported this week the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seized a ship secretly carrying embargoed North Korean arms to Iran.

Under Security Council resolution 1874, the United Arab Emirates has the authority as a member-state of the the United Nations, to intercept any shipments  stipulated by a UN sanctioned arms embargo against the North Korean government.

The ship, ANL-Australia, was carrying 10 containers of  rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition. There were no missiles on the ship.  The TSS, a purchase company working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards placed the order for ammunition and arms from abroad. The UAE is a central location for shipments of arms from one port to another.

Some diplomats believe the arms were intended for state-sponsored Basij militia who have brutalized and murdered protesters on the streets of Iran in the post-election clampdown.

The UN imposed its sanctions on June 12 this year after underground nuclear tests and several rocket launches by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Warnings by the Security Council to stop went ignored.

The partnership between Iran and North Korea remains strong. Iran is the biggest buyer of North Korean weapons. Iran and North Korea have also partnered up to exchange ideas on enriching uranium while North Korea has produced plutonium for nuclear devices.

Last Friday, the United Nations’ nuclear agency, the IAEA, issued a report claiming Iran had increased its number of centrifuges and that Tehran had not suspended its nuclear activities as required. The IAEA also expressed concern about Iran’s lack of transparency. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will meet on September 2 to discuss implementing tougher UN sanctions against Iran.

More Iraqi civilians have died as a result of smoking than by mortar fire and shellings.  Smoking kills an average of 55 Iraqis a day, compared to a average of ten deaths per day from terrorist shootings or bombings.

Israel, Jordan and Qatar have already prohibited smoking in public places.

The new ban, being reviewed by the Iraqi parliament has suggested a ban on smoking in all government, school and other public sector buildings. The goal is to forbid smoking as well in offices, cafes and on public transport. Many Iraqis are angered saying the government should focus on getting them electricity and jobs rather than imposing the ban on their private activities. If caught, Iraqis would be forced to pay over 4,000 US dollars in fines for violating the law.

“The purpose…is to protect the people from the social, health, environmental and economic risks of smoking,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 41% of Iraqi men and nearly 7% of women are smokers. Farhan Haq, from the United Nations Spokesperson’s office said “the United Nations has imposed a full smoking ban at Headquarters and the recent WHO report clearly underscores the dangers of smoking.”

The smoking ban seems to have hit the US military working in Iraq.

A new proposal to ban smoking in the United States military is also now being reviewed with a goal to promote a tobacco-free environment. The study, completed in June this year by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences says tobacco use impairs military readiness and causes serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Both the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department would like to see the proposal eliminate smoking in the next 10-20 years. Smoking has increased 50 percent by US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some skeptics of the proposal suggest smoking helps soldiers deal with post traumatic stress disorder and eases stress during deployment.

United Nations nuclear inspectors or IAEA, released their latest report today on Iran’s nuclear program. The report claims Iran is enriching uranium with about 300 fewer centrifuges than the almost 5,000 operating at the time of the last report. Nonetheless, this latest report underlines Iran has increased its nuclear facility development with over 7,000 new installation machines.

The IAEA is under severe pressure from Western nations, namely the United States, to declassify intelligence reports on Iran’s nuclear activities. It is evident, the United States is trying to build a stronger case for new sanctions against Tehran. Recent reports have indicated that Iranian officials are gravely concerned about air strikes against their nuclear facilities and are pressuring the United Nations to forbid any attack.

The report emphasizes IAEA officials do not buy into the belief that Iran is being transparent about its nuclear ambitions. Iranian IAEA representatives have expressed serious concern about the latest report and claim the IAEA is undermining Iran’s credibility. Recent election protests have decreased the government’s legitimacy worldwide and saddled officials with hundreds of ongoing trials, arrests, complaints of rape in prison and a growing opposition movement.

The nuclear disarmament issue remains a top concern for United States officials.

Deputy National Security Advisor, Mike Froman slipped into UN headquarters this week to meet with the UN Secretary-General and Dr. Susan Rice, the US Ambassador at the UN.  The meeting was set up apparently to discuss tightening Iranian sanctions and that country’s failure to reign in its nuclear ambitions.

“Iran also still refuses to respond constructively to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) questions about its past work to develop a nuclear weapons capability,” said Ambassador Rice earlier this year.

Six party talks on Iran’s nuclear program are being set up for September 2nd. The United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia will meet to discuss the IAEA findings and to come up with a strategy to get Iran to fully suspend its enrichment-related activities in order to avoid further economic sanctions.

And on September 24th, President Obama is set to lead a Security Council debate with the central goal of nuclear disarmament. Clearly, recent North and South Korean missile launches have rekindled the desire to put an end to the global production of nuclear arsenals.

“We hope to receive more than a Presidential statement from that meeting. We need a resolution reaffirming the goals of states to a nuclear free world” said Randy Rydell, from the UN Office of the High Representative for Disarmament. According to Rydell, this Security Council session, led by a US President, has never been tried before.

The United Nations is gearing up for an annual Non-Governmental Organization Conference on Disarmament in Mexico. The conference entitled “For Peace and Development: Disarm Now!” is set to take place in Mexico City from September 9-11. At the mention of Mexico, one is not reminded of a peaceful and disarming country, but rather of a brutal drug war, where sophisticated weaponry has killed some 11,000 Mexican people.

In recent weeks, Mexican police are finding themselves completely out of sorts. There are just too many guns taking over the country by drug cartels with military-grade weaponry.  The weaponry occupy Mexico’s towns and cities and include grenade launchers, TNT,  machine guns, rifles, anti-tank rockets and other heavy arms used to equip a military during a civil war or conflict.

The United States currently supplies some 90 percent of the firearms going over the border. With the support of the Bush administration, the Merida Initiative (also called Plan Mexico), which was established in 2007 and is still in place, provides at least US$1.6 billion in armaments, training and resources to the corrupt Mexican military.

Much of the heavy weaponry is believed to come from Central America–leftover munitions from wars past. And the cartels are robbing the weapons manufacturers and warehouses blind of industrial-style explosives. More people have died in this drug war than U.S. casualties combined in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. President Calderon has deployed some 45,000 troops in cities like Cuidad Juarez, Tijuana and other hot spots which are beginning to look more and more like Baghdad and Kabul.

“These are really weapons of war,” said one local Mexican official.

But how has the Mexican government chosen to deal with all the violence and chaos? For one, through a new law passed last month, the government will seek to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamines. The goal is to take the pressure off local police officials and to help them focus on the bigger drug criminals. The hope is that the prosecution of the leaders of these turf wars will eventually lead to fewer arms coming over the border.

A recent United States Joint Forces Command report listed Mexico just behind Pakistan as the country most likely to become a failed state. With little prospect of an end to the crisis, Mexico has moved these internal issues aside and made room to host over 1100 Non-governmental groups from 67 countries to foster “conventional” and nuclear disarmament next month.

Representatives from the UN Mission to Mexico were near silent on questions about their drug cartels. They only added a few words of “hopefulness” about the outcome of the conference. Ironically, Mexico is also the birthplace of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the first ever nuclear-free zone to cover a large regional population.

“Member-states have added little to the knowledge of cross-border ammunition flows.  It is very much part and parcel of the problem. ” said Daniel Prins, Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch, UN Office of Disarmament Affairs at a briefing held for UN correspondents this week.

September is going to be a busy month for climate change. On the 28th, the United States Senate will be asked to sign-on to the House approved Waxman-Markey bill to cap and reduce global warming pollution and cut U.S. imports of foreign oil. But the climate change debate–and whether other countries will commit to the massive global agenda–is still unknown. After all, how can the world possibly agree to re-direct its economy towards green growth?

A press conference organized this week by the Global campaign for Climate Action and Tck Tck Tck (an alliance that brings NGO’s, faith groups, and trade unions together on climate), surveyed expert opinions on the upcoming month, where several significant international gatherings will take place in the United States and are designed specifically to increase pressure on world leaders to sign an ambitious and binding agreement at the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. A September 22nd summit organized by the UN’s Secretary-General will seek to lobby member-states to sign on to the organization’s multi-tiered global warming reduction agenda.

Yet, there here have been a series of failures leading up to the UN Summit and Copenhagen. Many developing countries favor a single, all inclusive agreement  (a new Copenhagen over the stale Kyoto protocol), and others recognize the costs associated with tackling climate change. More importantly, governments simply cannot agree on how developing countries will set emission reduction targets. Many developing countries want the targets set first by developed countries. And more specifically, bilateral negotiations with major polluters, namely the United States and China, are not likely to garner the political will necessary to resolve current emission practices.

“I have no intention of playing a game. We are not looking at ways to gloss over this issue. We need to move forward.” said a hopeful UN Ambassador of Denmark, Carsten Staur, the host of the international climate change negotiations in December.

The breakdown in talks at the G-8 held in Italy this summer, also left many countries wondering whether the climate agenda would ever be adopted. Skeptics added that a global treaty to help cut carbon emissions to levels that will prevent dangerous rises in global temperatures could not possible exist as long as the U.S. and Australia rejected Kyoto arguing that economic competitors like China and India get by without restrictions.  And although industrialized nations pledged to limit global climate change to 2 degrees, developing nations felt the G8 should not be leading the world climate agenda and the current strategy did not sufficiently focus on cooperation between rich and poor states–forcing developing economies into the sidelines in Copenhagen.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) said at a stalled climate meeting in Bonn this summer, “If we keep moving forward at this pace, we may not make it in time at Copenhagen.”

“There is a lag between reality and action. Copenhagen may be an illusion of action with no action” said Alden Meyer, Vice Chair of the Tck Tck Tck campaign.

The climate bill in the United States (American Clean Energy and Security Act), would force U.S. industries to comply with tougher regulations and monitoring to mitigate global warming. Many lawmakers are against the climate bill, which they say could bring up higher energy prices to consumers. Under the House-passed bill, U.S. carbon emissions would have to drop by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, from 2005 levels.

“There has been a delay in this process partly due to the ongoing health care debate, which has greatly slowed down this climate agenda,” said Michael Allegretti, Senior Advisor on US Policy for the Climate Group which will host Climate Week in New York beginning September 21.

If the House had not approved the Waxman-Markey bill, there is great consensus the United States would not have been able to contribute to international climate change negotiations in Denmark in December.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and other democrats are leading the process and are hopeful the meeting in September will advance the climate change agenda in the US, a few months ahead of the global COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from December 7-18 2009.

By promoting alternative “green” energy like solar and wind power to replace coal and oil, the Waxman-Markey bill would dramatically shift energy production in the United States.

A leaked report released this week claims the UN Secretary-General does not have the capacity to deal with global conflicts in Sri Lanka and Burma, is frequently absent and cannot properly come up with solid solutions to aid developing countries during this financial crisis.

The report, published by Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, was addressed to Norway’s Foreign Minister from Mona Juul, the United Nations Ambassador to Norway. Juul wrote:

“At a time when the U.N. and multilateral solutions to global crises are more needed than ever, Ban and the U.N. are notable by their absence.”

“As you know,” Juul wrote, “(Ban) was a conscious choice by an American Administration that did not want an active Secretary-General. The current US Administration has not signaled a changed attitude toward Ban either — although there are rumors that some in Washington are now calling Ban a ‘one-term secretary-general.”

The Secretary-General’s recent visits to Burma, and his failure to mitigate the thousands of deaths and injuries of civilians in the recent Sri Lanka crisis, are also cited in the report as main examples of his failures.

Juul underlined that Ban Ki-moon was a “passive observer” to Burma’s unjust and continued house detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“In other crisis areas, such as Darfur, Somalia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and not in the least the Congo, the Secretary-General seems irresolute.”

Juul added that the Secretary-General has frequent public bouts of anger and the current mood among Ban’s staff is “very tense.”

Ban Ki-moon is also the most traveled of all the previous UN Secretary-General’s. Many within the system have criticized these travels as wasted spending.  A native of South Korea, Ban was elected in 2007. He is now half-way through his term.

The UN’s Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today launched World Humanitarian Day. The Day commemorates the humanitarian community’s ability to respond more rapidly and effectively to crises–natural or man made. OCHA added that humanitarian assistance has “improved beyond all recognition in the last 20 years.”

Participants also recognized the loss of so many aid workers in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and on other continents in Africa and Asia.

“Many thousands of aid workers who have devoted their lives to humanitarian work, matching idealism with action, and principles with practice. Their selfless and non-political endeavors are vital for the necessary acceptance by all concerned that assistance to the needy should be provided impartially and neutrally, without reference to religion, gender, or race,” the organization said.

On December 11th 2008, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to mark the 19th of August as World Humanitarian Day in order to recognize the importance of international cooperation, as well as to honor United Nations personnel who have been killed while on duty.

Among the dedicated professionals was Sergio Vieira de Mello, who died on August 19 in 2003 alongside 21 other colleagues in the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad.

“His memory should serve as an inspiration to all of us who carry out humanitarian work today, even as our assistance efforts in many places continue to be limited by increasingly violent frequent and targeted attacks on humanitarian staff.”

More shellings today killed at least 75 people and injured 400 people across Baghdad. State-owned Iraqiya television reported August 19 2009 as “the bloodiest day in Iraq this year.”

There was also a meeting held today by the Security Council with a message released by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ocsar Fernandez-Taranco, who said “attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property continue, with a lack of enforcement of rule of law. The issue of continued Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the West Bank is a matter of grave concern.”

Dozens of aid workers employed by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) have been injured or killed in recent attacks in Gaza and the West Bank.

OCHA added the day marks a need to address the facts that humanitarian needs are multiplying.  The world is facing many more new threats than before–threats of climate change, chronic poverty, the food and financial crises, water shortages, population growth and widespread pandemics.

Nearly ninety bloody murders of gay men have occurred in Iraq this year alone. Concerns of the rising HIV rates throughout the country have increased fears among the Iraqi police and security forces who have carried out these murders in some of the country’s most religious areas– including Sadr city. Seven deaths have occurred this month and over 700 murders have taken place since 2004 when militias started to go after these groups. These deaths mostly include murders of gays–including massive honor killings.

Homosexuality is stigmatized in Iraq as many religious groups believe it betrays the Moslem faith. Iraqi government officials have made clear they do not condone the murders.

Human Rights Watch issued a report this week entitled “They Want Us Exterminated”: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq. The report claims hundreds of gay men have been tortured and killed in Iraq in recent months-many by the nation’s police.

“Iraq’s leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.”

The report underscores that Iraqi police and security forces have done little to investigate or stop the killings and that authorities have made no arrests or prosecutions. A story highlighted in the report documents a typical murder carried out by the police:

“It was late one night in early April, and they came to take my partner at his parents’ home. Four armed men barged into the house, masked and wearing black. They asked for him by name; they insulted him and took him in front of  his parents. All that, I heard about later from his family.  He was found in the neighborhood the day after. They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out.”

For a full copy of the report, go to: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/08/17/they-want-us-exterminated-0

On the eve of an unexpected visit this week from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Abkhazia, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the Security Council condemning the Georgian government for its actions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia a year ago. The letter called for “adequate ways to ensure stability in Transcaucasia” moving away from “idealized and bloc approaches” in dealing with the situation.

TRNS obtained a copy of the letter, signed by Igor N. Sheherbak, First Deputy Permanent Representative. The letter underscores the “inhuman”  attacks committed by Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili’s regime on the innocent civilians in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The letter described Georgia as “barbaric” in their aggression into the region last August and blamed the Georgian government for the break down of Security Council talks in June and for tensions between Russia and the European Union and OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)—groups that want peace in the region.

The letter stated:

“Attempts to carry on as if nothing had happened and to ignore the fully sovereign existence of independent South Ossetia and Abkhazia eventually led to the closure in these countries and Georgia of the international presences that had generally provided useful assistance to the peoples of the region. That was not our choice. Nor does the responsibility lie on Russia for the withdrawal of the international missions, however hard some people may try to present this.”

The Georgian army was ousted from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, even though the country receives a good deal of political and economic support from the United States. Former President George W. Bush was reluctant to intervene in a conflict with the Russians but the administration officially backed the Georgian government.

A highly charged visit this week by Putin to Abkhazia (which Russia still regards as “independent” alongside South Ossetia) was met with harsh criticism from the Georgian Foreign Ministry, which labeled his trip a visit to an “occupied territory.” Putin promised to pump in nearly 500 million dollars to build up Abkhazia and to prevent further attacks.

The European Union on Thursday criticized Vladimir Putin’s visit to Abkhazia, saying that Putin did not have the  prior consent of the Georgian authorities.

Russia plans to use some of the 500 million to build more military bases in the separatist Georgian region.

“Russia is showing and will show economic, political and if necessary military support to Abkhazia,” Putin said in a news conference in Abkhazia on Wednesday, according to Russia news agencies. Putin also stated that Russia will work with Abkhazia in building a “modern border defense.”

Russia already has several thousand troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and military bases in both regions.  Putin has urged the UN and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to recognize the former republics’ independence.

Some international critics have compared Abhkazia to Taiwan. Currently, only Nicaragua and Hamas have formally recognized Russia’s right to intervene in the region.

The United States has called for Georgia’s sovereignty to be respected and is also concerned the massive build up in the area has shown the Russians are not willing to negotiate on this issue.

In June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon sent deep regrets to the Security Council after talks broke down to keep a UN military presence in the region. The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Mr. Vitaly Churkin, voiced dissatisfaction with the mission’s name (United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia) or UNOMIG. When the Security Council failed to reach an agreement, the UN mission pulled out of Abkhazia thus endangering the stability that the Secretary-General had hoped to achieve there.

With no military presence in the area, the UN has attempted to establish some sort of  “hotline” to facilitate urgent contacts between parties and guarantee that security concerns are addressed. TRNS spoke with Brenden Varma from the UN Spokesperson’s office and he added:

“It is not up to the UN to recognize states. It is up to states themselves to recognize other states. We would hope for a peaceful resolution between parties and to keep them engaged in dialogue.”

The Russian Spokesperson for the UN Mission, Elena Badiyan reiterated Russia’s position to TRNS this afternoon.  She said the letter was sent this week to the Security Council because the Russian government wanted to “attract attention and to make clear what really happened a year ago.”

She also added that the breakdown in talks was a result in June of the main obstacle–the name of the UN military mission.  When prompted with the question about ongoing concerns that Putin’s visit and the increased military and economic buildup in the region will lead to another conflict, Badiyan replied “There are no changes. Now is the dead season. Our position remains the same. We can’t make everyone see the situation the way Russia does. Some people will misunderstand.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) issued a strong message this week against expanding Jewish settlements in the district of Sheikh Jarrah, in East Jerusalem. The international community has joined UNRWA in voicing deep concern about the evictions of several Palestinian families from their homes. UNRWA remains vigilant about other refugee families in the area and says the evictions are causing further “unacceptable” suffering.

In 1956, UNRWA made an agreement with the Jordanian government, which controlled East Jerusalem at the time. The agreement stipulated the provision of houses in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah for Palestinians families who have been living ever since.

These recent evictions followed a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court that claimed Jewish families had owned the land before 1948.  Skeptics of this decision have said that under international law, the settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Convention  states:

“The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.”

The overwhelming view within the international community is that Article 49 is applicable to the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Previous U.S. administrations have labeled these settlements illegal, but Secretary of State Hilary Clinton used more cautious language this week:

“Both sides have responsibilities to refrain from provocative actions that can block the path toward a comprehensive peace agreement. Unilateral actions taken by either party cannot be used to prejudge the outcome of negotiations, and they will not be recognized as changing the status quo,” Clinton added.

Jewish settlers were escorted into the homes of 53 Palestinian people–some whom were left outside watching.

“The families, evicted in the early hours of Sunday from their homes where they have lived for more than a half a century, continue to suffer stress and shock,” UNRWA stated.

“Not only were they surrounded by Israeli police and security personnel at dawn, their homes broken into and their families thrown onto the streets, thy have had to endure the indignity and humiliation of their personnel effects being loaded onto trucks and dumped in scrub land at the edge of Jerusalem’s Route One,” said UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness.

TRNS spoke by telephone to Gunness and he added that these recent actions are affecting all the 4.6 million refugees– and the fear is that further evictions are imminent. UNRWA has met with Israeli authorities and called on them to give back the homes of the evicted Palestinians.