Security Council: Russia, China Lash out at Unilateral Sanctions by US, Allies
Russia and China lashed out in the UN Security Council at unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and other countries and groups.
The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China in the UN Security Council on Monday over the usefulness and impact of UN sanctions.
Russia, which holds the council presidency, chose the topic of the meeting: “preventing humanitarian and unintended consequences of sanctions.”
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky, who chaired the meeting, said many sanctions regimes interfere with plans for state-building and economic development, pointing to Central African Republic and Sudan and calling the measures on Guinea Bissau “anachronistic.”
The Security Council needs “to take greater heed of what the authorities of states under sanctions think” and be more realistic in setting benchmarks to lift them to make sure they don’t turn into “a mission impossible,” he said.
For her part, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield claimed that sanctions are “a potent tool” that “make it harder for terrorists to raise funds via international financial systems,” and have slowed development of “certain capabilities” in North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Britain’s deputy ambassador James Kariyuki said the value of UN sanctions was “proven” in Angola, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone where “they helped end conflict and support the transition to peace and democracy and were then lifted.”
Russia’s Polyansky took special aim at sanctions imposed outside the UN by countries or groups, which “remain a serious impediment for full-fledged functioning of humanitarian exemptions,” citing problems with contractors, carriers, cargo insurance and bank transactions.
He also said Russia proceeds from the understanding that only UN sanctions “are legitimate,” and that broader use of unilateral sanctions “undermines the norms and institutes of the international law.”
Polyansky said “secondary sanctions of major Western powers create a `toxic vibe’ around Pyongyang” that discourages cooperation even in areas not touched by international restrictions. He also cited what he called the “war of sanctions” against Russia’s ally Syria, which has very negatively affected its economy, as well as US sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela.
China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun called unilateral sanctions “extremely harmful” and expressed concern that a few countries “have been flinging them about left, right and center, in a frenzy so much so that they seem to be addicted to them.” He said these measures “have thrown a spanner in the works of economic and social development and scientific and technological progress of the targeted countries.”
Source: Agencies