UNITED NATIONS:Five new countries yesterday joined a UN Security Council riven by one of the biggest international splits in years on how to handle the Arab Spring uprisings. Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo start two year terms on the council which has been wounded by air strikes in Libya and is battling over President Bashar al-Assad’s deadly crackdown in Syria. Growing tensions around Iran add to the nerves on the 15-member body.
“It is like the Cold War,” said one Western diplomat. Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said the council’s work could be “seriously hurt” if the tensions persist.
Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973, passed in February and March, and which ordered sanctions and allowed air strikes to protect Libyan civilians sparked the hostilities.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon called the resolutions “historic.” Russia, China and a group of council allies including South Africa, India and Brazil, which has just left the council, say NATO exceeded the UN mandate with the air strikes and pursued “regime change” against Moamer Kadhafi.
AFP
