Brian Hook, the US envoy for Iran, with Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, Kuwait City, July 27, 2020. Hook has left his job just as the US wants the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution extending the arms ban embedded in the Iran nuclear deal. Elliott Abrams, US envoy for Venezuela, is to replace Hook.
The UN flag flew with United States and Canadian flags on the Peace Bridge, between Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ontario, until not long ago, but it’s unclear why it was there to begin with. OPEN SOURCE
Secretary of State Pompeo during a question-and-answer session about his new report by the Commisson on Unalienable Rights, unveiled at the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, July 16, 2020. Mary Ann Glendon, right, presided over the event and led the commission that wrote the report. FREDDIE EVERETT/STATE DEPARTMENT
Kelley Currie, US ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, has had the job since January. The Trump administration tried to eliminate the post at one point but the Senate made it permanent. Currie worked previously at the US mission to the UN, above, for Nikki Haley. ERIC BRIDIERS
Secretary of State Pompeo leaving the Pearl Harbor-Hickam joint base in Honolulu, June 17, 2020, after meeting with Chinese officials. Amid rising Covid-19 cases and nationwide protests against racial injustices, President Trump has been golfing and tweeting white supremacist slogans. RON PRZYSUCHA/STATE DEPT.
Deep uncertainty and unease are descending across the United States just as Americans are preparing to celebrate their most important “political” holiday, Independence Day, on July 4.
President Trump and John Bolton, his national security adviser, at a meet-and-greet with US military stationed in Britain; Portsmouth, June 5, 2019. In Bolton’s new book, he offers plenty of “snide” comments about such people as Nikki Haley, a former US envoy to the UN, like Bolton. SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD/WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
I never thought I would ever feel sorry for Nikki Haley.
Joe Biden, right, the likely Democratic Party nominee for US president, and community leaders at Bethel A.M.E. Church, Wilmington, Del., June 1, 2020. Besides the pandemic, a wrecked economy and public protests nationwide, Biden will have to repair US international relations if he wins the race. ADAM SCHULTZ/BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT
The Women’s March, 2017, above. A new campaign led by women in the United States with global experience are advocating that a feminist foreign policy be instituted in all branches of the federal government, regardless of national politics. JOHN JACK/CREATIVE COMMONS
The delegation of Mauritius at the General Assembly session that adopted a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to render an advisory opinion on the legality of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, June 22, 2017. Exactly a year ago, another resolution called on Britain to leave Chagos, based on the court’s opinion. It has yet to go. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Israel, May 13, 2020. He says the US plans to extend the arms embargo in the Iran nuclear deal, but it must go through the UN Security Council to do so. Members appear ready to push back. RON PRZYSUCHA/STATE DEPARTMENT
The Trump administration may be bound and determined to extend a tight global arms embargo on Iran, but it still can’t send a straight message about how it will do so through the United Nations Security Council. The embargo, embedded in a Council resolution endorsing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, expires in October.
