Security Council Study Guide
GUIORLEY TEIXEIRA
This is the Security Council official site: http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/
OBS: you should look everyday for news and resolutions!!!
1. Georgia conflict
Resume of the situation: The regions between the border of Georgia and Russia for a long time have created conflicts. Until the last months the problems were resumed to Georgian soldiers and revolutionary groups that were fighting for the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Most of the people that live in both these regions have Russian citizenship, forcing the Russian government to protect them. Georgia claims that the Russian military was invading their territory. In fact, it did happen, although for a noble reason, that is to protect their people. Georgia has being accused by the Russian government to attack Russian civilians. In September, the President of Russia has declared the independence of these regions, making the conflict even worse. The Georgian government calls for a humanitarian intervention for both regions.
Possible questions and answers for this conflict:
Q. What are Georgia and Russia fighting over?
A: Georgia launched a military strike on the province of South Ossetia, aiming to reclaim it after 16 years of semi-independence. In response, Russia sent tanks in. Moscow says Georgian forces had killed Russian peacekeepers there and were committing acts of "ethnic cleansing" of native Russians living there.
Q: Why does Moscow care what Georgia does in its own provinces?
A: Georgia, which borders Russia, is a former Soviet republic. It declared its independence in 1991 after the collapse of communism. Many of the 70,000 people in South Ossetia speak Russian and carry Russian passports. Relations between the two have been tense, as Moscow tries to reassert influence over nations that border it. Georgia has aligned itself with the West and wants to join NATO — a desire the Bush administration supports.
Q: Why is this happening now?
A: Georgia insists it had no choice but to act after what it says are increasing attacks from separatists. Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili claims Moscow took advantage of situation to "invade" his country while the world's attention was focused on the Olympics in Beijing.
Q: How bad could hostilities get?
A: It depends on how large a response Russia wants to muster. Russia has an active and equipped armed force of 1.02 million, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies of London. The institute numbers Georgia's active servicemen and women at 21,150.
Q: How have the United States and the rest of the world reacted?
A: The United States, NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have called for a halt in hostilities and for Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia to sit down and talk. The U.S. State Department says it supports Georgia's territorial integrity, while calling for an immediate cease-fire. The White House says President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have talked about the situation while both are attending the Olympics.
Q: Is there a chance that the United States and the West could be drawn into a confrontation with Russia over this?
A: Georgia is not a member of NATO, so there are no obligations to come to its defense. Georgia so far has asked for diplomatic, not military, assistance from the West. The Pentagon says it has only 125 defense personnel and contractors in Georgia that provide military training for Georgian forces deployed in Iraq.
Q: Could hostilities here affect U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan?
A: Georgia's president said Friday he is bringing home the 2,000 troops it had stationed in Iraq. That is a significant blow to coalition forces because Georgia was the third-largest contributor of troops behind Britain and the U.S. Apart from that, direct U.S. military involvement seems unlikely. Although Georgia may look close to Iraq and Afghanistan, it has little in common. Like Russians, Georgians and Ossetians are largely Orthodox Christian.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-08-question-answer_N.htm
Positions:
· Russia- the Russian President has declared the independence of two regions of the Georgia territory, South Ossetia and the Abkhazia. These two regions are in the border between Georgia and Russia. Most of the people that live in those regions have the Russian passport.
· Georgia- the Georgian President has called from the NATO and American troops. Georgia declares that was an offence against their territory. The Georgian troops have attacked this area against the rebellion groups that are at this region.
· United States- looking from the outside scenery they support Georgia. President Bush and the Condoleezza Rice have condemned the Russian attacks.
· European Nations- most of them are in the side of Georgia. The European Union is constantly talking for a peaceful resolution for this conflict. France has pronounced itself against Russia offence.
· African nations- are looking closely for this issue for it involves oil. Russia is the largest exporter of oil for the European nations. Africa is afraid for the prices going high.
· Asian nations- are afraid that this conflict could origin others, Afghanistan and Pakistan are preparing themselves for a possible conflict.
LINKS-
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/31/eu.summit.russia.ap/index.html
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27829&Cr=georgia&Cr1=
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/29/russia.georgia.south.ossetia.ap/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/28/russia.georgia.cold.war/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/26/russia.vote.georgia/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/news/georgia.crisis/
http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Mundo/0,,MUL744074-5602,00-CRISE+NA+GEORGIA+FAZ+UNIAO+EUROPEIA+ADIAR+NEGOCIACAO+DE+PARCERIA+COM+A+RUSS.html
http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Mundo/0,,MUL739731-5602,00-UNIAO+EUROPEIA+AMEACA+A+RUSSIA+COM+SANCOES+POR+CAUSA+DA+CRISE+NA+GEORGIA.html
2. Iran Enriching Uranium Program
Summary of the situation: During 50 years the Iranian government has been developing their nuclear program, initially with the help of the United States and Western European Nations. Since the start the only objective for this program was for peaceful purposes. The problems have started when Iran broke up relation with Western Nations. Basically a regional and ethnical dispute, looking for world influence. As we all know the American Imperialism is not accepted by the Arab Nations. Then after the 9/11 attack the United States together with some European Nations took more severe actions toward this program, accusing of developing a nuclear arsenal. With the war on terror, the Arab nations felt rejected by the United Nations. Emphasizing the problems between those countries, Iran has declared the support for some political groups consider terrorist by the United States. As an example is the Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranian government considers this groups a political party. At some point it is and is part of the Lebanon congress, although some part of it commits terrorist attacks.
Possible questions and answers for this conflict:
· Introduction
The U.S. State Department has called Iran the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism.” U.S. officials say Iran continues to provide funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups based in the Middle East and elsewhere, posing a security concern to the international community. Iran’s declarations that it has successfully enriched uranium and developed new missile technology have heightened alarm in the United States and a growing number of other states. Iran asserts its rights under an international treaty to pursue nuclear power and that it is only interested in nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. But it has faced growing sanctions, through the UN Security Council as well as international financial bodies, out of concern over its motives.
Does Iran sponsor terrorism?
In March 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “Iran has been the country that has been in many ways a kind of central banker for terrorism in important regions like Lebanon through Hezbollah in the Middle East, in the Palestinian Territories, and we have deep concerns about what Iran is doing in the south of Iraq.” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told CFR.org in June 2007 there is “overwhelming evidence” that Iran supports terrorists in Iraq and “compelling” evidence that it does the same in Afghanistan. For these reasons, news reports in August 2007 cited U.S. officials as saying that the United States would consider adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in helping attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
How is Iran governed?
Since a 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the U.S.-backed regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the country has been governed by Shiite Muslim clerics committed to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei serves as commander-in-chief of the armed and police forces; the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the state ministry in control of television and radio; and leader of the country’s judiciary. The Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), currently headed by Ali Larijani, doubles as Iran’s top negotiator on nuclear issues and enjoys close relations with Ayatollah Khamenei, who has final say over all SNSC decisions. The SNSC is composed mostly of top officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, intelligence, and interior, as well as military leaders from the army and the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s main security apparatus formed in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Revolutionary Guards are reported to be training, funding, and equipping Shiite militias in southern Iraq.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the popularly elected president, has aroused controversy by calling for Israel’s elimination but his power is checked by the Supreme Leader. He has vigorously supported the country’s nuclear energy program while denying any military connection, and has emerged as a strong anti-American voice globally.
What is the government’s stance on al-Qaeda?
In December 2005, Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Agence France Presse that Iran had extradited all foreign members of al-Qaeda, and tried any Iranian suspects. Previously, Iran had refused to publicly identify or extradite the detainees on security grounds.
What terrorist groups are linked to Iran?
U.S. officials say Iran mostly backs Islamist groups, including the Lebanese Shiite militants of Hezbollah (which Iran helped found in the 1980s) and such Palestinian terrorist groups as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A few months after Hamas won the Palestinian Authority (PA) elections in early 2006, Iran pledged $50 million to the near-bankrupt PA. The United States, among other nations, has cut off aid to the PA because of Hamas’ terrorist ties.
Iran is suspected of encouraging Hezbollah’s July 2006 attack on Israel to deflect international attention from its nuclear weapons program. Iran was also reportedly involved in a Hezbollah-linked January 2002 attempt to smuggle a boatload of arms to the PA. Some reports also suggest that Iran’s interference in Iraq has included funding, safe transit, and arms to insurgent leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr and his forces.
What terrorist activities have been linked with Iran?
The U.S. government first listed Iran as a terrorist sponsor in 1984. Among its activities have been the following:
o Observers say Iran had prior knowledge of Hezbollah attacks, such as the 1988 kidnapping and murder of Colonel William Higgins, a U.S. Marine involved in a UN observer mission in Lebanon, and the 1992 and 1994 bombings of Jewish cultural institutions in Argentina.
o Iran still has a price on the head of the Indian-born British novelist Salman Rushdie for what Iranian leaders call blasphemous writings about Islam in his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses.
o U.S. officials say Iran supported the group behind the 1996 truck bombing of Khobar Towers, a U.S. military residence in Saudi Arabia, which killed nineteen U.S. servicemen.
Does Iran have weapons of mass destruction?
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says Iran possesses chemicals that can induce bleeding, blistering, and choking, as well as the bombs and artillery shells to deliver these agents. U.S. officials say Iran also has an active biological weapons program, driven in part by its acquisition of “dual-use” technologies—supplies and machinery that can be put to either harmless or deadly uses. Weapons experts say the Iranian programs started after the country's forces were struck by Iraqi chemical attacks in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
With help from Russia, Iran is building a nuclear power plant, but U.S. officials say that Iran is more interested in developing a nuclear weapon than in producing nuclear energy. In April 2006, President Ahmadinejad announced Iran had successfully enriched uranium. Experts say Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) to produce a bomb in three to ten years. The international community has called on Iran to stop its nuclear program.
Does Iran have missiles that can deliver weapons of mass destruction?
Yes. Iran has hundreds of Scuds and other short-range ballistic missiles. It has also manufactured and flight-tested the Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of 1,300 kilometers—enough to hit Israel or Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Iran is developing missiles with even greater range, including one that it says will be used to launch satellites but that experts say could also be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile. In March 2006, Iran claimed it had successfully tested a missile capable of evading radar and hitting multiple targets.
Daniel Poneman, senior fellow at the Forum for International Policy and former special assistant to the president and senior director for nonproliferation and export controls at the National Security Council, said at a CFR symposium on Iran that “They could use trucks for delivery systems. I think just as the bomb-making is easier than getting the HEU, the delivery is much easier than making a bomb.”
Which countries have supplied Iran with missile technology?
Russia, China, and North Korea. Pakistan may also have been a supplier, though Pakistani and Iranian officials deny this.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9362/#2
· Iran- the Iranian government calls for the reason that every nation has the right to have a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. Sanctions have already being imposed by the United Nations and constant threats between United States and Iran only makes the conflict more drastic.
· United States- this program has being created for only one specific reason, to create nuclear weapons. No concrete proves have being found, only suspicions. It declares that if the Iranian government has not shown all their facilities to the IAEA inspector, they are hiding something.
· Russia- backup the nuclear program by selling uranium. Iran also is today the largest buyer of weapons from Russia.
· China looks to the point that every nation has the right to enrich uranium. Is also sells weapons to Iran.
· UK and France are totally against the Iranian Nuclear Program because of the suspicions that the Iranian government has contacts with terrorist groups.
· Pakistan as a nation that has nuclear weapons is in the side of Iran because it believes that every nation has the right to have a nuclear program.
· African nations are looking from an outside point, waiting for a peaceful resolution but want the end of the nuclear program.
· Venezuela totally supports that Iranian government, as is against the United States in all aspects.
LINKS
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iran/nuke.htm
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/29/iran.nuclear/index.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/17/iran.rocket/index.html
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RS21592.pdf
http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20071203_release.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071801378.html
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