U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft warned Iran on Friday that the Trump administration will keep up its maximum pressure campaign and use “other tools” if Tehran continues its “malicious behavior”, The Associated Press reported.
Craft also told her first press conference since arriving at the United Nations in September that all 15 members of the U.N. Security Council are united in their concern about any more ballistic missile launches by North Korea, saying there have been 13 launches since May and Pyongyang’s actions are a serious global issue.
North Korea has ramped up its missile tests in recent months, and experts say the launches are likely to continue as a way to pressure Washington into meeting Pyongyang’s demand for new proposals to revive nuclear diplomacy by leader Kim Jong-un’s deadline at the end of December.
The United States holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council in December and on Thursday Craft arranged for members to have lunch with President Donald Trump at the White House, which she said was relaxed, “very constructive,” covered many important issues including North Korea, and ran over by an hour.
She is also taking members to her native Kentucky for the weekend of December 13-15 and to a Brooklyn restaurant that trains refugees and trafficking victims on December 9 along with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
On major world issues, Craft told reporters the United States will respond to human rights abuses in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere, saying in “every corner of the world we’ve got human rights issues.”
Craft was responding to a letter on Wednesday from North Korea’s UN Ambassador Kim Song warning that if the United States goes ahead with a UN Security Council meeting on the North’s human rights situation, it will be “another serious provocation” resulting from America’s “hostile policy” and will worsen the situation on the Korean peninsula.
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