September 27, 2002
Germany and Pakistan were voted on to the Security Council on Friday, along with three other countries that will serve two-year terms on a council struggling over how to proceed on Iraq and the global fight against terrorism.
U.S. diplomats said privately that they plan to push through a resolution on Iraq before Germany takes its seat at the council table on Jan. 1, 2003. The United States would need nine votes on the council to get a resolution expected to authorize force against Baghdad if it fails to comply with weapons inspectors.
There are signs that Norway, which is losing its seat, is ready to support such a draft but Germany, whose Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was re-elected last week on promises to oppose a war in Iraq, is expected to vote against it if it could, diplomats said. The United States would likely be able to count on the support of Pakistan, which has become a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistan joins the powerful council while being embroiled in tensions with India over Kashmir. Its presence on the council raises the number of nuclear countries with votes to six, including the five permanent members - the United States, China, France, Russia and Britain.
The permanent five are the only ones on the 15-member council to hold veto power, enabling them to block resolutions. The 10 other members of the council are elected to two-year terms by the General Assembly and enjoy all other aspects of council membership, including the right to propose resolutions, chair committees and hold the rotating council presidency for one-month periods.
Countries are nominated by their regional groups and elected in a secret ballot by the General Assembly - which represents all 191 United Nations members. Once a year, the assembly elects five new members to replace five retiring ones.
This year, there were no contested seats. Germany and Spain will formally replace Ireland and Norway in the Western European seats on Jan. 1, 2003. At the same time, Pakistan will replace Singapore in the Asian seat, Chile will replace Colombia's Latin and Caribbean seat and Angola will replace Mauritius in an African seat.
The newly elected members will serve until the end of 2004. The terms of Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Syria expire at the end of 2003. Spain is likely to use its time on the council to focus on the war on terrorism as it continues its fight with ETA, the Basque group blamed for more than 800 killings during its 34-year campaign for an independent homeland.
In June, the Spanish parliament outlawed political parties that encourage or support terrorism and Spain has been pushing for international recognition of ETA as a terrorist group. Its new position could allow it to influence the Security Council's anti-terrorism committee, formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The committee is responsible for creating lists of organizations and individuals suspected of terrorist activities and reviewing efforts each country makes to fight terrorism. But the committee has had little impact or influence in its first year and has faced criticism that its mandate is unrealistic and unreachable unless it goes after member states who harbor or support terrorist groups.
The five new non-permanent members will also be eligible to chair powerful sanctions committees currently controlled by outgoing members. In December, Norway will give up the Iraq sanctions committee, Colombia will leave the Afghanistan committee, Singapore will relinquish control of the Liberia committee and Ireland will give up the Angolan sanctions committee.
Angola is trying to rebuild after more than two decades of civil war. It recently received pledges of $120 million from the World Bank for the demobilization of some 80,000 former rebel fighters and to improve community services in rural areas affected by the war.
Although Angola has earned hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years from offshore exploration by foreign oil companies, it has asked the international community for aid to help ease the plight of 4 million people driven from their homes by the war.
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