UN/Treaties

Samantha Power apologized for the comments and resigned from Obama's campaign team after they were publicized.

The delay would allow Obama to sign the pact during the August doldrums, with Congress out of town.

Secretary of State Kerry said Monday Obama would not immediately sign the treaty but is committed to doing so shortly. 

They say Obama is hesitant to sign a treaty opposed by the National Rifle Association.

The U.S. fears salaries for U.N. workers are no longer "reasonably comparable" to those of American civil servants. 

A United Nations panel recommended Thursday that large firms report their environmental impact along with earnings in an effort to reduce poverty and boost economic growth by 2030.

Members of both parties demanded Friday that the United Nations remove Iran from leading upcoming disarmament talks.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 72 House members said Iran's “continued pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,” “grotesque human rights record” and “role as a leading state sponsor of terrorism” should “disqualify” it from chairing the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. The next round of Geneva-based talks will take place from next Monday through June 23. 

“By allowing Iran to chair this Conference, the United Nations is legitimizing a tyrannical regime committed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction while delegitimizing the United Nations as a force to contain nuclear weapons,” the letter says. “Indeed, a conference seeking nuclear transparency and disarmament will be led by a country operating a dangerous and covert nuclear program that threatens global nuclear instability.”

The Obama administration on Monday called Iran's scheduled ceremonial leadership of disarmament talks at the United Nations “unfortunate and highly inappropriate” and announced the United States will respond by pulling its ambassador from the talks.

The U.S. mission to the UN however will still be sending lower-level negotiators to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The conference is seeking to begin talks on a treaty banning the further production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, a priority for the Obama administration that has long been held up by Pakistan.

“Boycotting would impede our ability to fully engage in the CD’s work,” a U.S. official told The Hill, “especially as we seek to break the long-standing deadlock on a verifiable fissile material cutoff treaty.”

The White House released a national strategy Friday for balancing energy- and minerals-development and conservation in the Arctic.

The document contains three policy aims — advancing national security interests, responsibly managing the Arctic ecosystem and bolstering international relationships. The White House will develop an implementation plan for the interagency effort in the coming months, a senior administration official said during a media call.

The Arctic issue is politically sensitive for President Obama, who is juggling demands from green groups to address climate change while also encountering pressure from Republicans and the oil-and-gas industry to ramp up drilling.

The State Department on Thursday clashed with Congress over the best approach to dealing with the hundreds of children abducted from America by one of their parents every year.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs panel on Human Rights and International Organizations, said at a hearing that he was reintroducing legislation to sanction countries that have shown a “pattern of non-cooperation” in resolving disputes with the United States. Susan Jacobs, the State Department's special adviser for children's issues, vowed to work with Smith on his bill, but warned Congress against taking a heavy-handed approach that she said could strain U.S. relations.

“I think sanctions are a two-edged sword,” Jacobs said. “I think that threatening countries is often an unsuccessful way to get them to cooperate with us, because most of the relationships that we have are very complex and involve many issues.”