Saudi Arabia rejects UN Security Council seat

PanARMENIAN.Net - Saudi Arabia is rejecting its seat on the UN Security Council and says the 15-member body is incapable of resolving world conflicts, Reuters reported.

The move came just hours after the kingdom was elected as one of the Council's 10 nonpermanent members.

In a statement carried on Friday by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said the Council has failed in its duties toward Syria. It says this alleged failure “enabled Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to perpetrate the killings of its people, including with chemical weapons, without facing any deterrents or punishment.”

The Ministry also said the Council has not been able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Earlier, Freedom House said it is concerned by United Nations General Assembly electing Saudi Arabia, Chad, and Nigeria as members of the Security Council. Saudi Arabia and Chad are rated Not Free in Freedom in the World due to widespread human rights abuses.

Despite their own records, the election of Saudi Arabia, Chad, and Nigeria to the Security Council will allow these countries to have influence over human rights issues that come before the Council. Freedom House calls on UN member states to take into consideration a country’s domestic human rights situation when voting on Security Council membership, it said in a statement.