Lavrov Says Moscow Will Raise Issue of UN Location After Russian Delegates Denied Visas
Geneva makes far more sense than Empire's bosom
In light of a US refusal to issue visas to a part of the Russian delegation traveling to participate in various activities of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that the time had come to raise the question of the location of the UN headquarters.
“When a visa was not issued to the head of the relevant Non-Proliferation and Arms Control department, who was supposed to go to a meeting of the UN Disarmament Commission in April this year, we formally proposed not to hold a Commission session in the United States, if all delegations were not entitled to send the person who is considered necessary to promote their positions and defend their interests. Now, apparently, we will have to raise the question of what to do with the UN headquarters”, Lavrov said in an interview with Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
Lavrov promised that Moscow would respond harshly to Washington’s refusal to issue visas for part of the Russian delegation traveling to the UN General Assembly.
“Of course, we will react harshly, try to respond. Such rudeness cannot be tolerated”, Lavrov said, adding that the Russian side “will figure out how to answer” as Americans also travel to Russia.
Notably, the head of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, was on the list of those denied an entry visa into the US.
“Visas were denied to ten of our employees. This is only from the Foreign Ministry. They also denied visas to [Russian lawmakers] Leonid Slutsky and Konstantin Kosachev, who traveled to the United States many times, as well as to Dmitry Rogozin, who wanted to take part in events dedicated to cooperation in space exploration”, Lavrov said.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thanked his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, for his help in getting a US visa for the Russian UNGA delegation’s interpreter.
“First of all, I would like to sincerely thank you for making this meeting possible. My colleague, who is helping us with interpretation, would not have gained a [US] visa without the Japanese embassy’s assistance,” the Russian foreign minister said.
Lavrov stressed that the Russian interpreter had no US visa three days ago.
“Your colleagues in the Japanese Embassy in Moscow asked us whether it would be possible to organize our meeting with a proper interpretation. Our Japanese friends immediately solved the problem with US colleagues: the visa was immediately issued and now we have an opportunity to have a full-fledged conversation,” he added.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that several members of the Russian delegation did not receive visas to participate in the high-level week of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, which runs from September 24-30 in New York. In total, 10 members of the delegation did not receive their visas, including senior lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev and the head of the Russian State Parliament’s International Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the situation demanded a tough reaction from Moscow and the United Nations, adding that the visa refusal was a direct violation of Washington’s international obligations.
The 1947 Headquarters Agreement between the United Nations and the United States regulates the accessibility of the UN seat to non-US citizens, among other provisions.
Moscow Working With US Lawyers on Lawsuit Over Russian Diplomatic Property
Lavrov has called the situation with seized Russian diplomatic property in the United States “highway robbery” and said that the Russian side was working with US lawyers and was preparing this case for court hearings.
“We have arguments, and not a few. We are working with US lawyers. We will continue to prepare this case for court hearings. US justice and legal proceedings are a very bureaucratic thing, it requires calculation of all the options”, he told the Kommersant newspaper in an interview.
The situation with property is a “highway robbery”, the minister stressed, adding that Russian diplomats have advanced Moscow’s position in the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country.
“The Americans […] do not want to resolve this situation, which is, obviously, unlawful and violates all conceivable conventions”, he said.
In December 2016, Washington expelled 35 Russian diplomats and blocked access to two Russian diplomatic compounds in response to Russia’s alleged meddling in the US presidential election, which Moscow has consistently denied.
In September 2017, the United States shut down Russia’s Consulate General in San Francisco and trade missions in New York City and Washington DC. US officials said the move came in response to Moscow’s decision in late July to reduce the number of US diplomatic staff in Russia to 455 people, the same number of diplomatic personnel Russia has in the United States.
After Russian diplomats left the diplomatic compounds, US security agents entered the premises to conduct searches. Moscow said that the actions of the United States constituted a violation of international law, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular Relations.
US Demands on INF Treaty ‘Boorish’
Lavrov also told the Russian-based media outlet that Washington’s demands – with regard to the destruction of all missiles that allegedly violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty – are “boorish”.
“We invited the Americans to show them this missile, offered to conduct a special briefing for them. But they categorically refused the invitation. The US will be satisfied only by the complete destruction of missiles, launchers and all associated equipment under US monitoring. This is a rather boorish position”, Lavrov said.
“And not only did they refuse to come to the testing range to have a look at this missile – they forbade their NATO allies to go there”, the minister stressed.
According to Lavrov, all this was done to accuse Russia of violating the INF Treaty and ensure the collapse of the agreement.
The INF Treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987, was terminated on 2 August at the US initiative after the country formally suspended its INF obligations six months earlier.
Both the United States and Russia have repeatedly accused each other of violating the deal, which required the signatories to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,417 miles).
Source: Sputnik
I deeply admire Lavrov, but I think there is no likelihood the US will lose the UN headquarters.
Why? For the same reason they obtained it in the first place, the threat of their taking their marbles and running.
The US refused to join the previous League of Nations.
Knowing American attitudes, WWII allies tended to support expectations of an American headquarters for the UN. It was viewed as a way of cementing America’s support, always lukewarm at best for international institutions and organizations.
And just look at the series of anti-UN actions in recent years, from Bush to Trump.
Hateful rhetoric and literally sometimes refusing to pay its dues unless it got the changes it wanted.
And only recently, several important UN agencies were cut off entirely, such as UNESCO.
We always hear the phony excuse that the UN is “unfair” to Israel. And that notion of unfairness carries a huge amount of political weight in Washington.
Unfair? Israel should have been expelled ages ago for its outrageous behavior.
It not only hates the UN, as many past speeches by its leaders have demonstrated, it stands in defiance of a long list of resolutions, something no other nation has done.
They are the very kind of resolutions that might have been used as an excuse by the US for invading another country, such as Iraq.
Israel likes the UN only to the extent that membership confers some legitimacy to it and gives it the opportunity to make speeches.
No one wants the US to leave the UN, but that would become a likely genuine threat with any notion of moving the headquarters.
The US will keep pushing like the bully it just naturally is, but I don’t think they will push too far.
If they do, it just means the UN has lost all political support in a very angry and aggressive US.
nothing united about the united nations.
maybe time for a new model and a new location.
how about brussels after the EU folds? :9
all infrastructure in place.
or maybe hong kong?
Does U.N. belong to the USA?
The US is a rogue nation and becoming alarmingly moreso with the current administration. The UN building is supposed to be in international territory and members and their staffs are (were) supposed to have access, especially for high level meetings that affect the world at large…and individual nations who have issues to resolve…
But Washington is now refusing diplomats access to the UN, which should tell us that
the UN building should be moved out of the US, even if Washington says it will not play anymore…when, really, did it ever? If Washington didn’t get its way, they used the veto power and that was it…..well, now is past time for the international meetings to take place elsewhere – you know, where the members have access to do the business of the world.
I used to advocate the UN getting the hel out of America.
Now i just advocate shutting the UN down, as it is an organization used to further the crimes of the Rats, and to protect the Rats from prosecution for the Ratschild’s legion of crimes against humanity and the Earth!
Who gives a rat’s ass about the fraud that is the United Nations?
Greta Thunberg gets a visa and a red-carpet welcome. High level officials and experts from Russia told to stay away. Very insane policies.
Along with Paul Craig Roberts, I’ve come to believe having any diplomatic or business ties with the Americans is a waste of time and resources.
President Trump and his definite maybes, along increasing US forces in the Baltic nations give rise to unnecessary tension.
Retain the red phone line if that exists, but it certainly appears the relationship is on a rapid downward slide.
Perhaps the Syrian war is the start of positive changes, though I’m not a betting man.
America continually exposes its true reality, a tyrannical dictatorship, devoid of any respect for international norms, laws or treaties. It always was a warmongering psychopathic entity, but it morphed into an amoral satanic abomination as it couldn’t contain its lust and self-consuming greed. Oblivious to the world’s detestation and loathing for its bullying and conceited belief of its own exceptionalism, it continues, foolishly but eagerly, in this madness which will ultimately lead to its own destruction. Its hijacking of the UN, SWIFT, IMF, WHO, etc,etc also means that, imminently, the rest of the world has to devise new structures and mechanisms to deal with rogue nations. America has to be held accountable for is innumerable war crimes, its incessant destruction of sovereign nations, its worldwide genocide and theft of natural resources etc,etc.