VOA Interview: US Ambassador Haley on Koreas, Palestinians, Rohingya

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Interview with Greta Van Susteren
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke with VOA contributor Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday in New York.

Haley discussed several topics, including North and South Korea:

“…We are not comfortable with them being a nuclear nation and we never will. … Just because North Korea and South Korea are holding hands today, doesn’t mean that threat has gone away. The United States and the international community is going to keep up the pressure on North Korea to totally disband. Until that time, we are going to wait and make sure there is no activity and no testing. When that time comes we will decide at that point. But all the cards are actually in North Korea’s hands in how we respond. If they do the right thing, we are happy to work with them, if they don’t, we’ve got options on the table.”

The U.S. withholding $65 million in aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which cares for 5 million registered Palestinian refugees:

“We are not going to reward bad behavior. Here you’ve got the Palestinians who are basically saying they are going to cut the U.S. out of the peace process, they are saying they no longer want to have anything to do with us. They go and take us to the United Nations and are basically very hostile in what they say and what they do. We are not going to pay to be abused.”

On the situation of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar:

“Burma (also known as Myanmar) is broken, it is absolutely broken. And we can’t look at the fact that the U.S. dealt with it a few years ago and think that we have to coddle it.”

On whether the U.S. may sanction Myanmar’s military again:

“I think that we need to look at everything. We absolutely need to look at everything. I don’t think that we should in any way be soft on what is happening with the government or with the military. They need to be held accountable for what they have done. I think we need to provide a safe place for the refugees, because repatriation is not something that is going to come easily because they are too scared to go back.”

A full transcript of this interview will be released soon. Please check back.