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Arab states call on Saudi Arabia to hold UN Security Council Seat
Members of the UN Security Council during a vote on Syria resolution, September 28, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/Adrees Latif
UNITED NATIONS – The Arab Group at the United Nations urged Saudi Arabia on Saturday to reconsider its decision to renounce a rotating seat on the Security Council to protest the 15-nation body’s failure to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues.
“We hope that they (Saudi Arabia), which are amongst the blessed who represent the Arab and Islamic world at this important and historical stage, specifically for the Middle East region … maintain their membership in the Security Council,” the Arab Group’s statement said.
Related:
- Saudi Arabia refuses UN Security Council seat, citing body’s double standards, failures
- Russia slams Saudi Arabia for refusing UN Security Council membership
The group appealed to the kingdom to “continue their brave role in defending our issues specifically at the rostrum of the Security Council.”
The Arab Group includes Arab UN member states with the exception of Syria, whose membership was suspended when it was frozen out of the Arab League.
Diplomats said Washington would like the Saudis to keep the council seat.
No country has ever been elected to the Security Council and not taken the seat. As an incoming Security Council member, Saudi Arabia would have taken up its council seat on Jan. 1 for a two-year term ending on Dec. 31, 2015.
When it announced its decision on Friday to refuse its newly won council seat, the Saudi kingdom condemned what it called international double standards on the Middle East and demanded reforms in the Security Council, which has been at odds on ways to end the fighting in Syria.
Unlike in the past, when Riyadh’s frustration was mostly directed at Russia and China, it is now also aimed at Washington, its oldest international ally, which has pursued policies since the Arab Spring that Saudi rulers have bitterly opposed.
Citing the Security Council’s failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, take steps to end Syria’s civil war and stop nuclear proliferation in the region, Riyadh said the body had instead perpetuated conflicts and grievances.
The Saudis have expressed disappointment at US President Barack Obama’s failure to push Israel to end settlement building in the West Bank and agree to a Palestinian state. The Obama administration has blocked the Palestinians’ push for full UN membership and vetoed a resolution condemning settlements.
WORRIED ABOUT U.S. POLICY ON SYRIA, IRAN
Western UN diplomats, suggested, however, that Riyadh’s frustration with the United States had more to do with Syria and Iran than US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process, which has been relatively consistent for decades.
They said the recent US-Russian deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, which appeared to break a long-standing impasse on the council over Syria’s 2-1/2 year civil war, might have led the Saudis to conclude Washington is coming around to Russia’s position that it might be better to let Syrian President Bashar Assad remain in place.
Blood-drenched images of Syria’s civil war, in which more than 100,000 have died and in which millions have been displaced, are aired daily on Saudi news and the kingdom has backed the rebels with arms and money. Assad’s ally Russia continues to support Assad’s government with weapons.
Saudi anger boiled over after Assad escaped US-led military strikes in response to an Aug. 21 sarin gas attack near Damascus by agreeing to give up his chemical arsenal.
Saudi concerns that the US decision to avoid striking Syria demonstrated weakness were underscored by signs of a tentative reconciliation between Washington and Tehran, something Riyadh fears may lead to a “grand bargain” on Iran’s nuclear program that leaves Gulf Arab states at a disadvantage.
Earlier this week, the United States praised Iran’s approach to negotiations with six world powers on its nuclear program during two-day talks in Geneva. Last month, Obama spoke on the telephone with Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, the first contact between US and Iranian heads of government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
If the Saudis insist on giving up their seat, the Asia Group will likely find another Arab candidate from the Middle East to take it. Any replacement candidate would likely need to be elected with a two-thirds’ majority in the UN General Assembly.
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Despite advances in modern medicine, China is setting up roadblocks to cope with an outbreak of an ancient plague that once wiped out one-third of the world’s population and may have been one of the plagues that God used to strike Egypt.
Chinese officials installed temperature scanners at airports and checkpoints on main roads in an attempt to stop the spread of Bubonic plague as a fourth case was discovered in less than three weeks. A program to exterminate rats and fleas, which carry the disease, was also launched in Inner Mongolia where the disease seems to be originating.
Top European Lawyers Honor Iranian Human Rights Advocates With Prestigious Award
Demonstrators gather in solidarity with anti-regime protests in Iran outside the Iranian Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. Photo: Reuters / Lehtikuva / Heikki Saukkomaa.
Four human rights lawyers currently imprisoned by the Iranian regime have been awarded with the annual prize of Europe’s most prestigious lawyers’ association.
The Iranian lawyers received the 2019 Human Rights Award from The Council of Bars and Law Societies Of Europe (CCBE) — a body that represents the bars and law societies of 45 countries and through them more than 1 million European lawyers.
UK Jewish Groups Welcome University of Bristol’s Adoption International Antisemitism Definition
The University of Bristol campus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The University of Bristol in England has adopted “in full” the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, the school’s Epigram independent student newspaper reported on Monday.
The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and Bristol’s Jewish Society (J-Soc) welcomed the move, saying, “The University of Bristol has not been free of antisemitic incidents and the adoption of this definition is an important first step in helping the university tackle anti-Jewish racism. We now expect the university to use this definition in outstanding disciplinary cases.”
Pope Advances One World Religion Agenda: Presents Buddhist Leader with Manifesto
Pope Francis Meets Thailand’s Buddhist Patriarch in Golden Temple (screenshot)
Pope Francis topped off his three-day visit to Thailand last Saturday with a meeting with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at Bangkok’s Ratchabophit Temple. The meeting took place in front of a 150-year-old gold statue of Buddha. The Pope followed Buddhist custom by removing his shoes.
During the meeting, the Pope gave the Buddhist Patriarch the Declaration on Human Brotherhood. The Declaration s a joint statement signed by Pope Francis of the Catholic Church and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, last February in Abu Dhabi. The Pope met with the Imam last month to reinforce the Declaration.
Israeli Company Seeks to Use Space Technology to Solve Pressing Pollution Problem on Earth by Lauren Izso
An Israeli company says it is using space travel technology to help solve one of the most pressing problems down on Earth — the reliance on diesel fuel, a major source of pollution.
Israeli startup GenCell has developed an electric generator based on a hydrogen-energy technology used to power some of the most-famous space missions in history.
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Raymond Ibrahim : Does Muslim-on-Muslim Violence Prove Jihad Is Politically Driven?
On January 18, a Shia Muslim rebel group launched a terror attack that claimed the lives of 111 in Yemen.
Days earlier, a Pakistani general captured popular sentiment whenever Muslims kill fellow Muslims by saying “Those who targeted innocents [Muslims] in a mosque can never be true Muslim[s].”
Such is the nature of one of the greatest claims that Islamic terrorism is much more politically than religiously driven. Thus, after another terrorist attack claimed the lives of Muslims in Bangladesh in 2016, it prime minister,
Sheikh Hasina, declared that “Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act. They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.”
David Haggith : GDP is In, and Recession is Out … or Is It?
Having predicted last year that a recession would begin in the summer of 2019 and that it would likely start with a major repo crisis, I am now proven wrong by 2019’s fourth-quarter GDP. If the repo crisis that started in the final week of summer had actually been the start of a recession, we would have seen fourth-quarter GDP go negative. Instead, it came in at 2.1% growth.
I find that an interesting number because third-quarter GDP also came in at 2.1% growth, and second-quarter GDP came in at 2.0% growth. Now fourth-quarter GDP came in exactly at 2.1% growth. Coincidence or goal-seeking? Notice the numbers are “seasonally adjusted,” and think about how many assumptions are made in seasonal adjustments.
Jonathan S. Tobin : Impeachment Tribal War Dooms Israel Bipartisanship
The effort to impeach and remove President Donald Trump from office has produced many losers and few winners. The drama of the trial in the U.S. Senate is must-see TV for political junkies, but it has also been dispiriting viewing for Americans of all political stripes.
Few issues have divided the country more starkly than the question of whether or not the president should be removed from office. The arguments from both sides of the spectrum and their lawyers, as well as from the talking heads on television, have not worked to change any minds from their original political positions.
KEN COHEN :Who Cares about Palestinian Rejectionism?
Last week, President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan. Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his electoral opponent Blue and White leader Benny Gantz were at the White House for the announcement. So were a bunch of international diplomats, including three from Arab nations. The Palestinians refused to attend and rejected the plan sight-unseen.
Anyone surveying the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations already knows that the Palestinians’ goal is the eradication of Israel. The difference in the new U.S. plan, however, is that the initial major steps in its implementation can be taken unilaterally by Israel, even with no Palestinian participation
DAVID BEDEIN : For any Chance at Peace, the Palestinian Education System must be Overhauled
The U.S. “Peace to Prosperity” plan presented by President Donald Trump last week proposes unprecedented criteria for the formation of a Palestinian state. Among them is this one: “The Palestinians shall have ended all programs, including school curricula and textbooks, that serve to incite or promote hatred or antagonism towards its neighbors, or which compensate or incentivize criminal or violent activity.”
The context of this directive cannot be ignored; our 20 years of research show that the PLO has transformed Palestinian schools into a tool of war against Israel.