MaximsNewsNetwork: US Amb. SUSAN E. RICE @ UNITED NATIONS

MaximsNewsNetwork: 02 Septemer 2009 - UNTV: As the United States took over the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of September, American Ambassador Susan E. Rice announced today (2 September) that US President Barack Obama will chair a summit-level meeting of the Council on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament when world leaders gather at the UN for the annual high-level segment of the General Assembly. Rice said that the meeting on 24 September will be only the fifth occasion in United Nations history for a meeting at the summit level and the first time in history that an American president will chair the United Nations Security Council. Taking questions from reporters, the US Ambassador referred to the recent controversy over the release from a Scottish jail of Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, convicted for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988. Rice said that virtually every American has been offended by the reception accorded to Mr. Megrahi in Libya upon his return from the UK and added that how Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi chooses to comport himself when he attends the General Assembly and the Security Council in New York, has the potential either to further aggravate those feelings and emotions or not. Libya currently holds a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. Libya has also been elected to preside over the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, which opens on 15 September 2009. On Sudan, Rice stated that the priority for the United States has been and remains to stop the killing and the dying in Darfur and to focus on steps that can be taken to reduce the suffering of people, the displaced, the refugees, other civilians, in Darfur and throughout Sudan. The American representative also announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will chair a Security Council meeting on women, peace and security on 30 September. MaximsNewsNetwork: News Network for the United Nations and the International Community. See: http://www.MaximsNews.com. "GIVING POWER & RESONANCE TO THE VOICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY" .