NEW YORK: The majority of veto appliance cases at the UN Security Council in the past three decades have been related to causes in the Arab region, a Kuwaiti diplomat has said.
Fahad Mohammad Al-Hajji, the first secretary in Kuwait’s mission, was addressing the UN General Assembly during a debate on just representation in the UNSC and prospects of increasing its members, reported Kuwait’s News Agency on Saturday.
Al-Hajji said he deeply regretted that the majority of veto cases involved the Arab region.
He said his country has brought to the spotlight reforming the UNSC, affirming that “arbitrary usage of the veto right” has compromised its credibility in some cases.
He added: “The usage of the veto led in some cases to preventing the council from shouldering responsibilities and taking the necessary precautions to preserve international peace and security.
“There is also another challenge. That is, setting the just and adequate representation of the geographic and regional groups, in addition to improving the task methods where it has become necessary to make actions more effective and transparent.”
Al-Hajji welcomed the appointment of Ambassador Tareq Al-Bannai, as Kuwait’s permanent delegate at the UN, and Ambassador Michal Mlynar, Slovakia’s permanent envoy, as chief personnel in the government-level negotiations on reforming the UNSC.
He expressed gratitude to Qatar’s peer, Ambassador Alya Al-Thani, and the Danish counterpart, Ambassador Martin Hermann, for their leading roles in the negotiations.
The senior diplomat said world events “should prompt us to exert more efforts to push forward the government-level negotiations on fixing the Security Council.”
However, Al-Hajji said efforts to reform the council had foundered due to the lack of “the required political will on the part of the member states, including the five permanent members.”
Noting Kuwait’s unwavering stance for reforming the UNSC, the first secretary pointed out that the council should be transformed to become more representative and mirror the “status that has changed a lot since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945.”
He renewed the call for granting Arab states the right to occupy permanent seats in the UNSC, in addition to increasing the number of their non-permanent seats.
The Arab Group in the UNSC represents more than 400 million people and comprises 22 states, nearly 12 percent of UN memberships.
Kuwaiti diplomat says arbitrary usage of veto compromises UN Security Council credibility
https://arab.news/4p75j
Kuwaiti diplomat says arbitrary usage of veto compromises UN Security Council credibility
- Regrets over Arab region involving majority of cases
- First secretary addresses General Assembly
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
- Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters
- In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 Daesh suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
