Ambassador Nikki Haley at the FDD Summit
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies hosted its annual National Security Summit, featuring U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorneys and FBI Agents, and Special Representative for Iran at the U.S. Department of State Brian Hook.
FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz presented Ambassador Haley with FDD’s Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Statesmanship Award, in honor of President Ronald Reagan’s Ambassador to the UN and saying “Ambassador Haley is as Ambassador Kirkpatrick was: authoritative, eloquent, and elegant, examples of the American dream pursued and fulfilled.”
Acceptance of the award was followed by a conversation on foreign policy and national security issues between Ambassador Haley and FDD President Clifford D. May.
The UN Human Rights Council — Too Many Bad Actors
Ambassador Haley became the U.S. Ambassador to the UN in January of 2017, and was quickly confronted with the bureaucracy and resentment that was there for America. This sentiment both disappointed and drove her to action. She wanted all to know “this was a new day in our country.”
In a bold move, Ambassador Haley led the U.S. to exit the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Though allies agreed reform was necessary, they would only tell her that “behind closed doors.” Too many “bad actors” like Venezuela and Cuba were using the Council simply to protect themselves.
“If they’re shouting, ‘death to America,’ why should we give them a single penny?” she asked.
Others, like Pakistan, never intended to partner with the U.S. to begin with. “If they’re shouting, ‘death to America,’ why should we give them a single penny?” she asked. “If they want to be a partner with us they need to quit harboring terrorists.”
It was a problem, so the U.S. left the UNHRC in June of this year.
Palestine and Israel — Partner Mentality is a Must
When asked about the anti-Israel bias in the UN, Ambassador Haley said she had no choice but to stand up against it, ensuring that sessions on the Middle East addressed a variety of issues.
“We believe in human rights. We believe in democracy. We believe in freedom, and we’re always going to fight for those things, not just here in America, but for every country that craves that.” But the U.S. works on a partner basis on issues of shared values. If a nation shows the U.S. it cares, “then we’ll come back and decide if we’re going to give.”
While the Palestinian people need assistance, the Arab community and Palestinian Authority are breathing threats toward America while failing to do anything to fix problems with Hamas in Gaza. So U.S. assistance through UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was cut in half.
“We believe in human rights. We believe in democracy. We believe in freedom, and we’re always going to fight for those things, not just here in America, but for every country that craves that.”
Human Shields — Who’s behind them?
One of the prominent issues in Gaza is that of human shields — when a combatant hides among innocent civilians or deliberately causes harm to them in order to shield himself from being targeted, often resulting in civilian casualties.
Ambassador Haley did not pause when Cliff asked who is to blame: “Whether it’s in Gaza, whether it’s in Lebanon, all of the areas where we have to deal with human shields, Iran is behind it.”
She described the use of human shields as “the most cowardly act you can ever imagine” and has actively sought to make progress on the issue. In a recent anti-Israel UN resolution, the U.S. forced an amendment that made the General Assembly acknowledge Hamas’ role. She committed to putting up more amendments to “make them acknowledge who’s doing this.”
Iran — JCPOA and hegemonic ambitions
Cliff and Ambassador Haley then turned to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or “Iran Deal,” which she described as “in no way” a good deal for “anyone in the international community but Iran.”
Still, Ambassador Haley tried to reform it. “You could change it to be a better deal,” she said, “but you couldn’t change it to be a good deal.” After reaching out to other nations to follow through on existing-but-overlooked resolutions, “nothing happened.” So, President Trump pulled out of the Iran Deal.
Iran’s regional and hegemonic ambitions remain increasingly concerning to the U.S. Ambassador Haley warned that everyone should be uncomfortable about Iran and the progress that they have made, particularly in Syria.
Syria — “You Break It, You Buy It”
Syria has become a “big pile of rubble,” says Ambassador Haley. Cliff noted, “We didn’t break it. Those who did, maybe they should be looking towards the future in funding that.”
Ambassador Haley agreed. While the U.S. will be willing to help when it comes to getting Iran out of Syria, Russia and Assad have come to “own” Syria by using chemical weapons and hurting innocent people, “and now they have to go fix it … The United States is going to stay out of that.”
North Korea — Not changing our minds
Finally, Cliff and Ambassador Haley turned to North Korea. While both agreed that the process has been disappointing and slow at times, Ambassador Haley turned to the positives: we’ve not seen a ballistic missile test in a while.
Sanctions are “pretty maximum pressure at this point,” she said, and the U.S. will continue to do more diplomatically.
“We’re not going to change our minds on denuclearization, and we’re not going to change our posture in terms of how we look at that as a threat in the world.”
