24 Sep 2013

Clark defends UN on Syria

9:31 pm on 24 September 2013

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has defended the United Nations against criticism it has failed to act decisively enough to deal with the crisis in Syria.

Miss Clark, now the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), says the organisation can do only what its member countries allow it to do.

Syria is dominating the UN's agenda as world leaders gather in New York for the annual General Assembly meeting.

Miss Clark says the UN has made progress over Syria "... the fact that the UN was able to get chemical weapons inspectors in; get the samples; pronounce these weapons had indeed been used, that provided the basis for some quite dynamic developments".

She says it has prompted the Syrian regime to say it will abandon chemical weapons and has opened the way for a possible solution to the crisis.

Miss Clark says problems of development are normally behind outbreaks of violence within countries and that underlines the importance of the work the UNDP does.