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President Bush Meets with the United Nations Security Council Permanent
Representatives
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 25, 2008

President Bush Meets with the United Nations Security Council Permanent
Representatives Roosevelt Room

˙ /news/releases/2008/06/20080625-7.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio


2:31 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Ambassador, it's good to see you again. Thank you very
much for bringing your colleagues from the United Nations Security Council.
First, I want to thank you all very much for serving your respective
countries. And thank you for being voices for peace and freedom.

We've had a really good discussion. We talked about a U.N. Security Council
role for Darfur and Burma. We talked a little bit about Iran and how the
United Nations Security Council is sending a focused message that the world
really offers Iran a better way forward than isolation if they will
verifiably suspend their enrichment programs.

And then we talked about Zimbabwe. Friday's elections, you know, appear to
be a sham. You can't have free elections if a candidate is not allowed to
campaign freely and his supporters aren't allowed to campaign without fear
and intimidation. Yet the Mugabe government has been intimidating the
people on the ground in Zimbabwe. And this is an incredibly sad
development.

I hope that the EU -- I call -- AU will, at their meeting this weekend,
continue to highlight the illegitimacy of the elections; continue to remind
the world that this election is not free and it's not fair.

I want to thank very much the leaders in the region, those who have stepped
up and spoke clearly, I appreciate them doing every -- taking their
responsibility seriously. And I want to thank the members here around the
table of the United Nations Security Council for your strong presidential
statement. It was a powerful statement for fairness and decency and human
dignity. And I suspect you'll still be dealing with this issue. And as you
do, I hope you continue to speak with the same clarity that you spoke with
last Monday.

People of Zimbabwe deserve better than what they're receiving now. People
there want to express themselves at the ballot box, yet the Mugabe
government has refused to allow them to do so. This is not just, and it is
wrong.

Thank you very much.

END 2:34 P.M. EDT

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