President Obama delivers historic UN speech against ISIL

KUSI News – President was seeking to dramatize the importance of a collective fight against ISIL and managed to get a resolution passed on the urgency of ISIL’s threat to the entire Middle East and beyond.

President Obama is the first president in the history of the United Nations to take the gavel and the chairmanship of the Security Council.

A short time after his speech to the UN, he chaired a special meeting of the 15 member Security Council.

With President Obama presiding, the resolution was aimed at limiting the flow of fighters to terror groups like ISIL.

The resolution requires all countries to prevent the recruitment and transport of those fighters.

It comes against the backdrop of an expanded U.S. Military campaign against ISIL with airstrikes now hitting targets in both Iraq and Syria.

Ron Hehring said, “Some would argue that america has been slow to respond to this ISIS threat, there’s been adequate debate about that, so I think its important for the President to be seen taking action in a pro active manner.”

Hehring has spent considerable time in the Middle East over the past decade advising and educating officials on several governments, including Iraq, Pakistan and others.

He is not critical of the president presiding over a Security Council meeting, though it may not be the proper protocol.

“Certainly it draws much more global attention to this meeting by having the president himself preside over the meeting as opposed to the US ambassador to the UN,” he said.

The threat from ISIS not only in the Middle East, but globally is an issue for all countries.

President Obama was dramatizing the importance to have a collective action against terrorism.

“This elevates it. I happens that the united states chairs the UN security council this month, and so President Obama took advantage of the opportunity to preside over the meeting himself,” said Hehring.