77 Security Council Quotes
Following is our list of security council quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about security council members.
Quick Jump To
Famous Security Council Quotes
The United Nations remains our most important global actor. These days we are continuously reminded of the enormous responsibility of the Security Council to uphold international peace and stability. — Anna Lindh
In a case like Iraq the UN has again shown what important role it plays as the guarantor for protecting international peace and stability in the global political structure. — Anna Lindh
Like all forms of collective security, multilateral sanctions require a unanimity rarely achieved in international politics. — Elliott Abrams
The failure of the United Nations - My failure is maybe, in retrospective, that I was not enough aggressive with the members of the Security Council. — Boutros Boutros-Ghali
If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it. — Norman Cousins
The United Nations is our one great hope for a peaceful and free world. — Ralph Bunche
If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions. — Abba Eban
The United Nations is nothing but a trap-door to the Red World's immense concentration camp. We pretty much control the U.N. — Harold Wallace Rosenthal
The United Nations has come under the control of outlaw nations and self-serving special interest groups. — Ginny Brown-Waite
The security of which we speak is to be attained by the development of international law through an international organization based on the principles of law and justice. — Ludwig Quidde
One morning, just like 9/11, there's going to be a disaster. I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea. — Newt Gingrich
Saddam's goal is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed. — Madeleine Albright
The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the States in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being. — Kofi Annan
National security is vital for economic and social progress. — Paul Kagame
The well-being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be served until peace - as well as freedom, honor and self-respect - is secure. — Ralph Bunche
Un Security Council Quotes
Those who insist on transferring the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council have received an additional argument for doing so. — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world's security. You couldn't make this thing up. — Benjamin Netanyahu
Britain, Europe's second largest economy, a member of the G-7 and the UN Security Council, wants to leave the EU. That weakens us and it weakens Britain. — Martin Schulz
We need a reform of the Security Council. It must be perceived as truly representative by all the 191 member states, to uphold the credibility and legitimacy of the UN as the main political arena. — Anna Lindh
The views of the European Union are fully reflected in this text, particularly the key objective of the EU, namely vigorously to address the disarmament of Iraq and to do so within the framework of the UN Security Council. — Javier Solana
How was Kosovo recognized? They forgot about the territorial integrity of a state, as well as UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which they had themselves adopted and supported. Why could it have been done there, but not in Abkhazia and South Ossetia? Why not? — Vladimir Putin
Reporting Iran's dossier to the UN security council will be unconstructive and the end of diplomacy. — Ali Larijani
I feel that when the reforms in UN take place and the Security Council will be expanded in the permanent membership category, India will have a place, I hope so, but first it is to be expanded. — Pranab Mukherjee
Somewhat by historical happenstance the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China - also were the original five countries to have nuclear weapons. — John Burroughs
We should find other platforms, other forums for that [foreign policy], and there are plenty of them, including, for example, the UN and the Security Council. — Vladimir Putin
Security Council Members Quotes
If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member, the United States, because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world. All international laws are invalid, meaningless attempts to constrict American power. — John Bolton
International institutions like the Security Council, the General Assembly, the G20, the BRICs, the IMF, etc., continue to be little more than an extension of the (increasingly conflicting) values and interests of member states. — Ian Bremmer
India seeks to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council... things like this don't happen automatically, you need constant dialogue and discussion with the world. — Pratibha Patil
India has a legitimate right to becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. — Atal Bihari Vajpayee
The Security Council should be seen as the executive committee of the global security system set up after World War II. Its members, and especially the Permanent 5 (P5), have a special responsibility for international peace and security. — Kofi Annan
The Soviet Union, and Russia as the successor state to the Soviet Union, is a founding member state of the United Nations and a permanent member of its Security Council. — Vladimir Putin
The unfair composition of the Security Council is largely acknowledged. The principal defects are the anachronistic privileges of the five permanent members of the Council and the Council's insufficient representativeness. — Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
People Writing About Security Council
More Security Council Quotes
During my term in AU, I will initiate an organised compensation claim for Africa and I will fight for a greater voice for Africa in the United Nations Security Council. If they (Western nations) do not want to live with us fairly, it is our planet and they can go to other planet. — Muammar al-Gaddafi
Chinese involvement is an attractive proposition for many African governments. Beijing and the big Chinese companies don't ask difficult questions about human rights, and they don't demand economic reform or even suggest that certain African leaders stop stealing their countries' wealth, as the IMF or World Bank might. For example, China is Sudan's biggest trading partner, which goes some way to explaining why China constantly protects Sudan at the UN Security Council and continued to back its president even when there was an arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court. — Tim Marshall
Finally, I am encouraged to note that the Security Council issued a statement today expressing its concern about the massive humanitarian crisis in Darfur and calling on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and reach a ceasefire. — Jan Egeland
The United States must also continue to push the United Nations Security Council for strong action to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. In the meantime, it is our job to take meaningful steps to eliminate the threats posed by Iran. — Allyson Schwartz
The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power. — Colin Powell
Disarming Iraq is legal under a series of U.N. resolutions. Iraq is in flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. — Jose Maria Aznar
We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today's complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. — Vladimir Putin
Unless the Security Council is restored to its pre-eminent position as the sole source of legitimacy on the use of force, we are on a dangerous path to anarchy. — Kofi Annan
What takes place in the Security Council more closely resembles a mugging than either a political debate or an effort at problem-solving. — Jeane Kirkpatrick
Without the Turkey agreement, tens of thousands of refugees would still be stuck in Greece. The Commission presented proposals for securing Europe's external borders early on, but they languished in the Council for months. As you can see, the Commission isn't asleep. Oftentimes it has to wake up the others. — Jean-Claude Juncker
In Rwanda that genocide happened because the international community and the Security Council refused to give, again, another 5000 troops which would have cost, I don't know, maybe fifty, a hundred, million dollars. — Lakhdar Brahimi
Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council. — Kofi Annan
The United Nations' founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America's consent, the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades. — Vladimir Putin
I have often said that we have two UNs; the UN that is a Secretariat, that implements the mandates handed over to it by the General Assembly and the Security Council, and the UN that is the member states who sit in the Council, take the decisions, hand over the mandates, or take decisions in the General Assembly. — Kofi Annan
How long do Syrian families have to live in fear that their children will be killed or tortured, before the Security Council will act? How many people need to die before the consciences of world capitals are stirred? — William Hague
The U.S. - the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that's hardly even a joke. The United States has even gone so far as to veto Security Council resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. That was in the 1980s under Reagan. — Noam Chomsky
Just as the Security Council was largely irrelevant to the great struggle of the last half of the twentieth century - freedom against Communism - so too it is largely on the sidelines in our contemporary struggles against international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. — John Bolton
It's very liberating for me to realize that I don't have to step up to the plate with a plot that involves the U.N. Security Council. — Jonathan Franzen
There are big issues, like the reform of the Security Council. These kinds of questions are something the President of the General Assembly must keep his eye on. — Harri Holkeri
But I would say if the Security Council is only relevant if it agrees with the United States, then we have come a long way in a direction that I do not like very much. — Hans Blix
There's a sense that we've obtained from various quarters in the Security Council that the notion of an international tribunal is not really practical. Certainly Indonesia is not convinced, and we get a sense that the rest of the Security Council will need to be convinced about the recommendations. — Marty Natalegawa
But it became clear as time went on that in Mr. Bush's mind the New World Order was founded on a convergence of goals and interests between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, so strong and permanent that they would work as a team through the U.N. Security Council. — A. M. Rosenthal
In order for the U.N. to be effective, there must be consequences if people thumb their nose at the United Nations Security Council. And we will work with people on the Security Council to achieve that objective. — George W. Bush
Had someone from Serbia flown a Greater Serbia flag in Tirana or Pristina, it would become an issue for the U.N. Security Council. — Ivica Dacic
The liberation of Kuwait has begun. In conjunction with the forces of our coalition partners, the United States has moved under the code name Operation Desert Storm to enforce the mandates of the United Nations Security Council. — George H. W. Bush
If the nuclear dossier is referred to the U. N. Security Council, Iran will have to resume uranium enrichment. — Ali Larijani
That's the job of the National Security Council is to try to be a disciplined clearinghouse, gathering the views from across multiple agencies, teeing up decisions that make sense for the president. — Greg Miller
In the era of Khruschev the Soviet Union had publicly declared itself a supporter of the Indian stand on Kashmir. In 1962 a Russian veto had defeated a Security Council resolution on the plebiscite issue. By 1965, and after the fall of the Kruschev regime, Russian attitudes were significantly modified. — Nyla Ali Khan
The Council of the Union of Democratic Control re-affirms its unshaken conviction that a lasting settlement cannot be secured by a peace based upon the right of conquest and followed by commercial war, but only by a peace which gives just consideration to the claims of nationality, and which lays the foundation of a real European partnership. — Norman Angell
From now on, nothing is impossible for Israel, which is a normal country like any other. We won't wait another half a century to sit on the Security Council. — Dan Gillerman
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of security council quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about security council to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of security council quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
Embed HTML Link
Copy and paste this HTML code in your webpage