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Russian senator comments on US exit from UN Human Rights Council

The United States announced earlier the decision to quit the UN Human Rights Council

© AP Photo/Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. By withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United States has shown weakness and inability to defend its stance, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev said on Wednesday.

Read also

US quits UN Human Rights Council

"No matter the reasons behind this decision - and the rhetoric is off the charts, as usual - it indicates Washington’s weakness and not its strength," Kosachev wrote on Facebook. "Strong countries, confident of their positions, continue to defend them under any circumstances, even if they are outnumbered," the Russian senator added.

He stressed that unlike the US, Russia had always firmly stood its ground in the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

At the same time, in Kosachev’s words, the United States creates "coalitions that rush to applaud the instant they spot an American flag" instead of defending its position. "And if Washington fails to do that, it is only left with the opportunity to slam the door. This is what happened with UNESCO and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. And now it has come down to human rights," Kosachev pointed out.

Washington’s outrage is easy to understand, the senior Russian senator said. "As everybody knows, the US makes huge contributions to the UN budget, while time after time vote results turn out to be impartial and not in the US favor," he noted, adding that high-flown statements about human rights were made by a country "where authorities are ripping underage children from illegal migrants before the eyes of the world."

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told reporters that Washington was withdrawing from the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council. In the past several months, Washington has many times criticized the council, particularly accusing it of having a biased attitude towards the United Nations and Israel.

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