Russia, UN call on US to return to UN rights council

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday urged the U.S. to return to the UN Human Rights Council.

On June 19, U.S. envoy for the UN, Nikki Haley, announced American President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw country from the UN body because of resolutions criticizing Israeli actions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

"We of course would much prefer the U.S. to remain in the Human Rights Council. And I believe that the human rights architecture is a key tool at the present moment in order to promote and protect human rights around the world," Guterres told a news conference in Moscow following his meeting with Lavrov in Moscow.

The foreign minister said he hopes the U.S. decision to withdraw from the UN council is not final. He also added that he could not agree with the US envoy's position on Israel.

"The recent examination of the disorders that happened there [in the Gaza Strip], clashes, shelling and Israeli retaliatory measures showed that most of the Security Council members have impartial positions," he said, adding that shelling on Israel were also slammed by the council as well as unjustified force applied from the Israeli side.

Commenting on the aspect about non-performing UN resolutions by certain sides, Guterres said the process of the UN Secretariat has been launched to improve their implementation but the key aspect is that member states must respect the UN Security Council decisions.

Commenting on the UN rights council's report on Eastern Ghouta, the UN chief said he had not seen it.

"I have not seen the report mentioned here, but it is clear to me there were severe violations of human rights both by the Syrian army and armed divisions acting in Syria," he said.

Earlier, the UN Human Rights Council released a report according to which the seizure of Eastern Ghouta "was accompanied by the severe violations performed by all sides".