My heart is heavy as I am assigned to write the obituary of a dear friend and colleague, Graham Usher, who thrust his way to the top of our profession, journalism, without compromising his ideological orientation. Usher was born in the late 1950s, (...)
The Security Council has moved a step closer to authorising military force in Mali -- the precedents are not good, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 12 October the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution granting West African nations 45 (...)
Turkey and Syria are locked in a conflict that neither wants but is unable, it seems, to prevent. Graham Usher reports from the United Nations
The Middle East's next war has edged closer with Turkey's shelling of military targets inside Syria. The (...)
In his General Assembly speech President Obama said a lot to the American people about the Arab revolutions but not much to the peoples of the region, writes Graham Usher at the UN
From the outset of this year's debate at the General Assembly two (...)
Like everyone else in the region Hizbullah is waiting for the day after President Al-Assad's departure, writes Graham Usher in Beirut
Last month the Lebanese army arrested 18 armed men and confiscated a warehouse full of guns in Tripoli, Lebanon's (...)
Lebanon is being sucked into Syrian war. Graham Usher reports from Tripoli, the country's most lethal frontline
Machine-gun fire crackles from the Alawite militiaman hidden in a warren of apartments piled up on his mountain home. Below -- on a (...)
It was among the most high profile jobs in diplomacy. Now it's like a curse, writes Graham Usher at the UN
Nearly a week after his name was first linked to the job Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian foreign minister and veteran UN troubleshooter, has (...)
Kofi Annan's resignation means failure of the main diplomatic effort to end the violence in Syria, writes Graham Usher at the United Nations
Kofi Annan's resignation as the Arab League and UN's Special envoy for Syria on 2 August brought to a close (...)
The nearer Bashar Al-Assad's regime gets to its end the more dangerous Syria becomes, writes Graham Usher at the United Nations
As the Syrian regime fights for its life in Aleppo, Western states and their regional allies are preparing for the day (...)
Kofi Annan is again trying to drum up support for his peace plan. It's a lonely sojourn, writes Graham Usher at the United Nations
In what may be the last throw of the dice for his diplomacy, on 9 July UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan (...)
The apparent failure of the Geneva conference may mean the end of diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian crisis, writes Graham Usher at the UN
The 30 June Geneva conference called by UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan represented perhaps a (...)
The possible induction of Al-Qaeda inspired groups into Syria could make an intractable conflict irredeemable -- at least for the UN, writes Graham Usher
The bombings in Damascus on 10 May did not shock simply because of the scale of the carnage. In (...)
Kofi Anan's latest report on the Syrian conflict was bleak, writes Graham Usher at the UN
For the second time in a month UN-Arab League Special Envoy Kofi Anan and UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous briefed the Security Council on the state of (...)
The Anan peace plan is taking flak but it still offers the best way forward, writes Graham Usher at the UN
Special Envoy Kofi Anan's peace plan for Syria is on the ropes. That at least is the view of the Syrian opposition, Gulf states in the Arab (...)
Anan's plan on Syria has backers and doubters but there is no alternative, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 24 April UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Anan briefed a closed session of the Security Council on the peace plan that bears his name. It (...)
Kofi Anan's peace plan for Syria hangs by a thread, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 12 April the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Anan's six point peace plan for ending the crisis in (...)
Kofi Anan's peace plan may be the most recent victim of the Syria crisis, writes Graham Usher at the UN
Under the peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Anan, by 10 April the Syrian government was supposed to have withdrawn troops and heavy weapons (...)
Kofi Annan's peace plan has failure written all over it, but it still offers the best solution to the Syrian crisis, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 2 April UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Anan told the Security Council that he has set 10 April as the (...)
Kofi Anan says international unity is key to his mission's success in Syria, writes Graham Usher at the UN
Kofi Anan, United Nations-Arab League Special envoy on Syria, had one overriding message on 16 March when he addressed a Security Council (...)
Kofi Anan's negotiated transition out of the Syria crisis may seem a mission impossible -- but it's worth trying, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 12 March the foreign ministers of seven countries met in special session of the Security Council to (...)
Despite a United Nations vote in favour of the Arab League's peace plan for Syria, the world powers still cannot agree a way forward, writes Graham Usher
On 16 February the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning violence in Syria and (...)
The Arab League's latest appeal to the Security Council will likely be no more successful than the last, writes Graham Usher at the UN
On 12 February the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo called on the United Nations Security Council to (...)
Graham Usher in New York looks at why Russia and China vetoed the Security Council resolution on Syria and what may come in its place
The UN resolution supporting the Arab League peace plan was the most determined effort by the Security Council to (...)
The Arab League has the support of the Western states on the Security Council for its peace plan on Syria. But does it have Russia, asks Graham Usher at the UN
On 31 January the Arab League Secretary-General Nabil El-Arabi and Qatari Premier Sheikh (...)
When it comes to Syria the divisions on the Security Council mirror those among the Arabs, writes Graham Usher at the United Nations
The quiet consensus on the UN Security Council is that when Arab Foreign Ministers meet in Cairo on 22 January they (...)