[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 25 (Monday, June 30, 2008)]
[Page 901]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Meeting With United Nations Security Council Permanent 
Representatives

June 25, 2008

    The President. Mr. Ambassador----
    Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Sir.
    The President. ----it's good to see you again.
    Ambassador Khalilzad. It's good to see you.
    The President. 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 of 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 is 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 their--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.

Note: The President spoke at 2:31 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, 
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations; and President 
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.