US fails in its efforts to slam N Korea at UN General Assembly

The US has abandoned an attempt to hold a UN Security Council session to slam North Korea’s human rights record after failing to muster enough support for the bid.

UN diplomats confirmed on Friday that Washington does not have the essential nine votes in the 15-member council (UNSC) to carry out its annual bid since 2014 to hold a meeting on Pyongyang’s right record this year, even though US President Donald Trump is seeking a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

"They don't have the numbers this year," said a UNSC diplomat as quoted in an AFP report, adding that "Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is not on board." The council meeting on North Korea was tentatively scheduled for Monday.

A historic summit between Trump and Kim last June opened up dialogue on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula between the two countries after months of exchanging military threats. A second summit is expected next year amid a growing distrust of Washington by Pyongyang.

The US has succeeded in the past years to secure the nine votes needed at the UNSC to hold the meeting against Pyongyang, despite opposition from China.

UN diplomats, however, insisted on Friday that only eight council members backed the US request this year, with non-permanent member Ivory Coast refusing to budge to US pressure to support its political scheme at the world body.

PressTV-US pressuring Arab allies to back anti-Hamas bid at UN

The US is reportedly exerting pressure on several Arab countries to follow suit and back its draft UN resolution against the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement.

Pyongyang had written to UNSC members last month to urge them against backing Washington’s request for the meeting in its bid to defame North Korea for political gains in its military and foreign policy objectives.

North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song told council members last month that criticism of Pyongyang's human rights record would "swim against the current trend" of rapprochement and "stoke confrontation."

A 2014 report by a UN Commission of Inquiry pointed to human rights abuses across North Korea, but Pyongyang firmly rejected it as a fabrication, based on testimony from dissidents living in exile.

China, meanwhile, has persistently argued that the UNSC should not be the venue for discussions on human rights as a threat to international peace and security.

The UNSC has imposed a series of strong economic sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, with the US insisting that the sanctions remain in place until Pyongyang fully scraps its weapons program.

Another bid championed by US Ambassador Nikki Haley to condemn the Palestinian Hamas movement at the United Nations for firing rockets also failed to secure enough votes for adoption on Thursday.

PressTV-US fails to condemn Hamas at UN General Assembly

A US draft resolution to condemn the Hamas resistance movement at the UN failed to gain a majority vote.

The 193-member assembly voted 87-57 in favor of the resolution Thursday while 33 members chose to abstain, leaving Washington with a vote that fell short of the two-thirds requirement to adopt the resolution.

The non-binding resolution sought to slam Hamas for firing rockets at Israel as a defensive measure against the regime’s persistent bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip along with other deadly military measures against the impoverished territory.

The resolution sought to condemn Hamas for carrying out rocket attacks against Israel. The resolution came weeks after Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups fired over 400 rockets into Israel during a two-day flare-up of violence following a botched Israeli attack against a Hamas commander.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said before the vote that the assembly could make history condemning Hamas.

“The General Assembly has passed over 700 resolutions condemning Israel. And not one single resolution condemning Hamas. That, more than anything else, is a condemnation of the United Nations itself,” Haley said.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk