KSA seeks permanent UNSC seat for Arabs

Saudi Arabia has urged the UN Security Council to get rid of the veto system and allocate a permanent seat for Arab countries.
Abdallah Yahya A. Al-Mouallimi, Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made the call during a UN session, weeks after the Kingdom rejected its seat on the Security Council as a non-permanent member during the two-year period 2014-2015.
“The Security Council has failed to tackle Middle East issues,” Al-Mouallimi told the session.
He went on to criticize the Security Council for being “crippled” by the veto power, which is held by only five countries. He said that “just international representation” is needed. For the first time in its history, Saudi Arabia won a two-year rotating seat on the 15-nation Security Council last October but it rejected its seat at the Council and blamed it for failing in its responsibility toward the Arab world.
Zuhair Al-Harthi, a member of the Shoura Council’s advisory council foreign affairs committee, said there are mounting international calls for the reform of the UN council. He backed the Saudi call to revoke the veto power of the five permanent members. “It is high time that the issue of the veto power was reviewed,” he said.
Referring to criticisms leveled against Saudi Arabia following its rejection of the UNSC seat, Al-Harthi said, “Riyadh rejected the seat for very sound reasons.”