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President Obama Chairs U.N. Security Council Meeting

Aired September 24, 2014 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Mark Wallace, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the president just in minutes from now is going to be chairing -- lowering the gavel on this U.N. Security Council meeting about stopping the flow of foreign fighters through some of these countries.

Is this really something the U.N. has any control over whatsoever? Does this meeting really matter, no matter what kind of resolution they come to?

MARK WALLACE, PRESIDENT, UNITED AGAINST NUCLEAR IRAN: I think the Security Council meeting actually really does matter, because this is going to be a bit of the brass tacks, if you will, about the president's strategy and the West's strategy deal with this.

Hopefully, it will be -- it's a binding Security Council resolution. And I think the language that people are going to pay attention to is the funding and facilitation of these groups, facilitating of these extremist groups. And I -- I don't want to say that it's targeted at the Qataris, but it's targeted at the Qataris and others that have perhaps supported a lot of these groups in the past.

And certainly the countries have rejected Security Council resolutions even when they have been binding and have not adhered to them. But I think the Qataris, for example, are quite vulnerable. The Qataris are trying to expand their presence in the world in many ways and are hosting a World Cup in 2022.

So I think that that language is the key language and the brass tacks, if you will, and I think these countries that want to be responsible and be a part of the international community will have to live by the language of this Security Council resolution.

COOPER: Let's listen to the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The 7,272nd meeting of the Security Council is called to order.

The provisional agenda for this meeting is threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, foreign terrorist fighters. The agenda is adopted.

I wish to warmly welcome the distinguished heads of state and government, the secretary-general, ministers and other distinguished representatives present in the Security Council chamber.

Your presence today underscores the importance of the subject matter under discussion. Before each of you is a list of speakers who have requested to participate, in accordance with Rules 37 and 39 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure, as well as previous practice of the Council in this regard.

We propose that they be invited to participate in this meeting. And there being no objection, it is so decided.

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of item two of the agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S-2014- 688, the text of the draft resolution submitted by 101 member states.

Now, the full list of co-sponsors of the resolution will be reflected in the official record of this meeting. I wish to draw attention of the Council members to document S-2014-648, a letter dated September 3, 2014, from the permanent representative of the United States of America to the U.N. addressed to the secretary-general, transmitting a concept paper on the item under consideration.

It's my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now. Will those in favor of the draft resolution contained in document S-2014-688 please raise their hands.

The results of the voting is as follows. The draft resolution received 15 votes in favor. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as Resolution 2178, dated 2014.

I now give the floor to the secretary-general, his excellency, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon.

BAN KI-MOON, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you, Mr. President.

And I congratulate on your presidency of the Security Council this month.

Distinguished heads of states and government, honorable ministers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

President Obama, thank you for your leadership in convening this Security Council summit. This is the second time that you have presided over this Council on a matter with grave implications for international peace and security.

The world is witnessing a dramatic evolution in the nature of the terrorist threat. The last year, terrorist attacks have killed, maimed and displaced many thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them Muslims, from Afghanistan to Somalia to Nigeria, from Iraq to Libya to Mali.

These attacks have been carried out by violent extremists who thrive in conditions of insecurity and injustice, fragility and failed leadership. These groups ruthlessly hijack religion to control territory and vital economic resources. They brutalize women and girls. They target and slaughter minorities.

They are the enemies of faith. As Muslim leaders around the world have said, groups like the ISIL, or Da'esh, have nothing to do with Islam, and they certainly do not represent our state. They should more fittingly be called the un-Islamic nonstate.

Yet these groups have become a magnet for foreign terrorist fighters who are easy prey to simplistic appeals and siren songs. The United Nations al Qaeda-Taliban Monitoring Team estimates that more than 13,000 foreign terrorist fighters from over 18 member states have joined ISIL and the al-Nusra Front.

This growing phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters is of consequence now, of course, of the conflict in Syria. A long period of upheaval and, until recently, unresponsive leadership in Iraq, coupled with outrageous human rights abuses in Syria have created a hothouse of horrors.

There can be no genuine protection of civilians if extremist groups are permitted to act with impunity and the Syrian government continues its assault on its own people.

For more than a year, I have sounded the alarm about vicious and unjustifiable actions of these groups and the danger they pose to Iraq, Syria, the wider region and international peace and security. We need a creative and comprehensive political strategy in Syria and beyond to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters.

Terrorists must be defeated, but we must do so in a way that avoids the deliberate acts of provocation that they set for us, victimization, further radicalization and more civilian deaths. Eliminating terrorism requires international solidarity and multifaceted approach.

Among the many tools we must use, we must also tackle the underlying conditions that provide violent extremist groups the opportunity to take root. Immediate security issue must be addressed. Over the longer term, the biggest threat to terrorists is not the power of missiles. It is the politics of inclusion.

As peaceful societies and respect for human rights, it's education, jobs and real opportunity. It's leaders who listen to their people and uphold the rule of law. Missiles may kill terrorists, but good governance kill terrorism.

Free and independent societies, free from suffering, oppression and occupation, this is what will kill terrorism.

Mr. President, distinguished heads of state and government, I welcome the Council resolution and adopted and its call for strengthening implementation of the U.N. global counterterrorism strategy.

Through the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, we are stepping up efforts in support of member states and regions seriously affected by terrorism. Through the U.N. Counter-Terrorism Centre, we are working with member states to enhance understanding of the foreign terrorist fighter phenomenon and to develop and implement policies to combat their flows.

Through our collective efforts, we must ensure that all counterterrorism actions and policies are consistent with international human rights and humanitarian laws.

As the custodian of the charter of the United Nations, I want to emphasize that all measures must be fully in line with the goals and values and principles of the United Nations.

I once again welcome the new unity of purpose in the Council on this issue under the leadership of President Obama. I hope that this spirit will carry over to other pressing issues, particularly finally bringing peace to the people of Syria.

Thank you, Mr. President.

OBAMA: I thank his excellency, the secretary-general, for his statement.

I will now make a statement in my capacity as president the United States.

Mr. Secretary-General, heads of state and government, distinguished representatives, thank you for being here today.

In the nearly 70 years of the United Nations, this is only the sixth time that the Security Council has met at a level like this. We convene such sessions to address the most urgent threats to peace and security. And I called this meeting because we must come together as nations and an international community to confront the real and growing threat of foreign terrorist fighters.

As I said earlier today, the tactic of terrorism is not new. So many nations represented here today, including my own, have seen our citizens killed by terrorists who target innocents.

And, today, the people of the world have been horrified by another brutal murder of Herve Gourdel by terrorists in Algeria.

President Hollande, we stand with you and the French people, not only as you grieve this terrible loss, but as you show resolve against terror and in defense of liberty.

What brings us together today, what is new is the unprecedented flow of fighters in recent years to and from conflict zones, including Afghanistan, in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, Libya, and most recently Syria and Iraq.

Our intelligence agencies estimate that more than 15,000 foreign fighters from more than 80 nations have traveled to Syria in recent years. Many have joined terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda's affiliate the Nusra Front and ISIL, which now threatens people across Syria and Iraq.

And I want to acknowledge and thank Prime Minister Abadi of Iraq for being here today. In the Middle East and elsewhere, these terrorists exacerbate

conflicts. They pose an immediate threat to people in these regions. And as we have already seen in several cases, they may try to return to their home countries to carry out deadly attacks.

In the face of this threat, many of our nations working together and through the United Nations have increased our cooperation. Around the world, foreign terrorist fighters have been arrested, plots have been disrupted, and lives have been saved.

Earlier this year, at West Point, I called for a new partnership to help nations build their capacity to meet the evolving threat of terrorism, including foreign terrorist fighters. And preventing these individuals from reaching Syria, and then slipping back across our borders is a critical element of our strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.

The historic resolution that we just adopted enshrines our commitment to meet this challenge. It is legally binding. It establishes new obligations the nations must meet. Specifically, nations are required to prevent and suppress the recruiting, organizing, transporting, or equipping of foreign terrorist fighters, as well as financing of their travel or activities.

Nations must prevent the movement of terrorists or terrorist groups through their territory and ensure that their domestic laws allow for the prosecution of those who attempt to do so. The resolution we passed today calls on nations to help build the capacity of states on the front lines of this fight, including with the best practices that many of our nations have approved yesterday, in which the United States will work to advance through our Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund.

This resolution will strengthen cooperation between nations, including sharing more information about the travel and activities of foreign terrorist fighters. And it makes clear that respecting human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law is not optional. It is an essential part of successful counterterrorism efforts.

Indeed, history teaches us that the failure to uphold these rights and freedoms can actually fuel violent extremism.

Finally, this resolution recognizes that there is no military solution to the problem of misguided individuals seeking to join terrorist organizations. And it therefore calls on nations to work together to counter violent extremism that can radicalize, recruit and mobilize individuals to engage in terrorism.

Potential recruits must hear the words of former terrorist fighters who have seen the truth, that groups like ISIL betray Islam by killing innocent men, women and children, the majority of whom are Muslim. Often, it is local communities, families, friends, neighbors and faith leaders that are best able to identify and help disillusioned individuals before they succumb to extremist ideologies and engage in violence. And that's why the United States government is committed to working

with communities in America and around the world to build partnerships of trust, respect and cooperation.

Likewise, even as we are unrelenting against terrorists who threaten our people, we must redouble our work to address the conditions, the repression, the lack of opportunity, too often the hopelessness that can make some individuals more susceptible to appeals to extremism and violence.

And this includes continuing to pursue a political solution in Syria that allows all Syrians to live in security, dignity and peace. This is the work that we must do together as nations. These are the partnerships we must forge as an international community. And these are the standards that we now must meet.

Yet, even as we're guided by the commitments that we make here today, let me close by stating the obvious. Resolutions alone will not be enough. Promises on paper cannot keep us safe. Lofty rhetoric and good intentions will not stop a single terrorist attack.

The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action, into deeds, concrete action within nations and between them, not just in the days ahead, but for years to come, for if there was ever a challenge in our interconnected world that cannot be met by one nation alone, it is this, terrorists crossing borders and threatening to unleash unspeakable violence.

These terrorists believe our countries will be unable to stop them. The safety of our citizens demand that we do. And I'm here today to say that all of you who are committed to this urgent work will find a strong and steady partner in the United States of America.

I now would like to resume my function as president of the Council. And I will now give the floor to the other members of the Security Council.

I begin by giving the floor to his excellency, Mr. Goodluck...

COOPER: President Obama addressing the United Nations Security Council.

I'm joined by Jim Sciutto, Christiane Amanpour, and Jake Tapper.

Jim Sciutto, it's easy to be skeptical, as the president said, about promises made on paper here. We have certainly seen a lot that the U.N. has promised that they have not been able to deliver on. In theory, what does this resolution really mean?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This was, at least on paper, a very strong statement. I have a copy of one of the final drafts of it.

It has very strong legal language here requiring nations, not asking them, not urging them, but requiring nations to, one, prevent the movement of terrorists and prevent the movement of fighters from their countries to places like Syria, two, to address radicalization at home and to help prevent young men and women from being radicalized so they join these groups and attempt to join fights in places like Syria, but, three, as well, requiring nations to make it illegal to fund and recruit them.

You have a lot of countries, Qatar included, but also Saudi Arabia and elsewhere where you have charities or at least masquerading as charities when in reality they are funding money and fighters to these groups. They can't just turn a blind eye to this. They have to make it criminal and they have to pursue it.

I think it's important that this was adopted unanimously even with a country like Russia, a country that the U.S. has some very serious disputes with now, for instance, in Ukraine, but Russia as well. They have a radical problem. They have got issues with Islamic extreme in the Caucasus. This is somewhere where the U.S. and Russia can see eye to eye.

China as well, often a country that will veto resolution that the U.S. sponsors, China in Xinjiang province, it has its own problem with Islamic extremism. This is something like ISIS where countries that often differ can agree frankly that they have to address it. The president said in his comments there this is legally binding.

You and I know that sometimes people break the law of the U.N., but at least in words this is a very strong movement here. Another point that both the president and Ban Ki-Moon made there is that in Syria alone 80 countries have sent fighters there, 15,000 foreign fighters, 80 countries. This is not just a Qatari problem. It's not just a Saudi problem or a Syrian problem. It's an American problem. Got 12 Americans who have gone to go there. British, French, you name it. They're now -- if they follow the letter of the law, including spirit of the law, they're addressing it.

COOPER: But, Jake Tapper, even the countries that are involved in this coalition the U.S. has put together to fight ISIS, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others, have in the past and still are in many ways funding Salafist groups, funding extremist groups.

TAPPER: That's right. The question is how on earth is this going to be enforced considering the fact that so many of the madrasas from which a lot of these foreign fighters are first introduced to the concepts, the Salafist concepts that these actions that are being committed by ISIS are in fact in the name of God, are in fact holy, how on earth is the Obama administration, the U.N. Security Council going to ensure that these countries stop the financing of the madrasas, to say nothing of the extremist groups?

It will be a tall order. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk of this since 9/11 and still that financing continues in madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere. That will be a big challenge. But you have heard President Obama, as we were discussing before his remarks, Anderson, talk more about the ideology that fuels terrorist groups such as ISIS and others more today than I have heard him than at any other time. I do think that that has to become something he talks more about. You

heard him say just now that people of ISIS betray Islam. A week ago, he said the Islamic State is not Islamic and that ISIS is not an Islamic organization. A lot of discussion and debate about that because obviously its appeal is that it is the purist form of Islam, which is why President Obama said today that it was Muslim communities in particular required to stand up and rebut that and refute that, Anderson.

COOPER: Christiane, one of the other things he just said and interesting for a president who is now leading a war against radical Islam in the form of ISIS and other groups saying that there is not a military solution here.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think that's really important.

And to what Jake said, these people pretend to be purist of Islamists. But, of course, if you go back to the actual time of the caliphate, that was a much different Islam than you're seeing ISIS. They were more tolerant even than the Christians at that time. It's a complete and utter misnomer.

To that end, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon today said they are a non- Islamic nonstate. You will see that even rhetorically, the Arab and Muslim people leaders and people have started to say not in my name. There is a viral YouTube campaign, ordinary Muslims around the world saying they do not speak in my name. Leaders are saying we're not going to call them Islamic State, ISIL, no matter what.

We're going to call them Da'esh. And you're going to hear more of leaders saying that. But to the point of funding, I think that's really crucial as well, these foreign fighters. Secretary Kerry said that he's sure that these Arab countries will have to do that. But of course the proof will be in the pudding.

I get to speak the emir of Qatar tomorrow and I will put this to him. But in terms of stopping foreign fighters, the French foreign minister told me this week and also the British are talking about, take away their passports and take away their I.D.s and have the communities start to reach out to us, the government, and tell us when there are problems, when their kids go abroad. They know that people in their communities are missing. Report it back to us.

He said we have to educate people about the cult, the murderous cult that they are going into when they go there, particularly young girls, he said, and the French foreign minister saying to me young women who we have seen extraordinary, way different post-9/11. Right now, young women are going to join ISIS thinking that they are somehow going to find the meaning of life, only to be dragooned into prostitution, sexual slavery, mass rape, all kinds of inhumane and barbaric treatment.

Education is also vital. But, Anderson, as the president said, eventually, it demands a political solution and an economic solution. COOPER: The difficulty, of course, for countries to identify those

who may go off to fight in Syria and in Iraq and elsewhere for jihadist causes when you have even many who have left from the United States, their family members who have been interviewed subsequently said we had no idea my son was even thinking to do this. We thought they were heading to Turkey to study, only to find out that they wind up in Syria or in Iraq.

Coming up, the U.S. says an al Qaeda cell planning an attack on the U.S. homeland and now a new report suggests that group suddenly went dark -- details on that next.

Plus, we're getting new information about a fourth hostage beheaded by Islamist militants. This is CNN's special live coverage ahead.

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