Remarks by Samantha Power after UNSC Votes against Arms Embargo on South Sudan

The UN Security Council voted on Friday against a draft resolution that sought to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan and targeted sanctions on three key Government and opposition figures.

Defeated by a vote of 7 in favor to none against, with 8 abstentions, if adopted the draft would have instituted a ban on arms sales to South Sudan as well as designating three officials as subject to an asset freeze and travel ban:

France, New Zealand, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay voted in favor of the draft resolution.

Speaking after the vote, the mover of the resolution, Samantha Power, the US representative to the UN said although the measures proposed in the text would not have been an answer, they would have reduced the violence, addressed impunity, kept the country from spending precious resources on arms, and created momentum for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Samantha Power had this to say after the vote.