Global Policy Forum

By Barbara Crossette

Syria appears highly likely to be elected to a rotating seat on the Security Council this year, diplomats said this week. The Syrians would replace Bangladesh in a seat that is alternated among nations in the General Assembly's Asian regional bloc, which includes the Middle East.

Voting by the General Assembly for five of the 10 nonpermanent Security Council members will be in the fall to fill seats for 2002-2003. But nations aspiring to hold the places begin campaigns early, sometimes years in advance, because the process often involves extensive of political horsetrading.

Syria's effort, which Israel opposes, has the backing of a majority of Middle Eastern and Asian nations and several important European governments, including France and Germany, according to diplomats. The Bush administration — still in transition and without an ambassador here until the Senate confirms its nominee, John Negroponte — has not made a statement on Syria's candidacy and is still studying the issue.

"Since this vote will not occur until well into the fall's General Assembly, it is simply too early to go into any additional detail on the U.S. position on any Security Council candidacy," said Paul Aronsohn, a spokesman for the United States mission.

When Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited the Middle East, he met President Bashir al-Assad of Syria, who surprised diplomats by offering to place oil purchases from Iraq under United Nations supervision. Iraq had expected to reopen a pipeline to Syria outside the United Nations "oil for food" program.

Some diplomats here speculate that General Powell may have discussed Syria's candidacy for a Security Council seat while in Damascus and may be prepared not to oppose it. For years many nations turned a cold shoulder toward Syria, contending it had a shadowy reputation on terrorism, an intransigent attitude toward peace with Israel, and dominated its neighbor, Lebanon.

The Clinton administration fought a similar effort last year when Sudan tried to take an African seat. The United States and several African nations mounted a campaign against Sudan, and the Sudanese lost out.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, said in an interview today that although all regional groups have the right to choose any country for a Council seat, he questions whether Syria meets the criteria set down in the United Nations Charter. Mr. Lancry gave this quote from Article 23: "The General Assembly shall elect 10 other members of the United Nations to be nonpermanent members of the Security Council, due regard being specially paid, in the first instance, to the contribution of members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security."

"Here I have to stress the sad fact," Mr. Lancry said, "the fact that my colleagues from Lebanon can't unfortunately portray — that Syria is an occupying power in Lebanon. Syria does not contribute to the maintenance of peace and security. "Moreover, Syria feeds the lack of stability and security and peace on the Israeli-Lebanese border, using the Hezbollah movement as the tool for this destabilization. That is why we consider that this candidacy is in blatant contradiction with the spirit and the letter of this article."