| Fri Oct 23, 2015 1:22pm EDT Related: WORLD, UNITED NATIONS
U.N. Security Council not respecting all members' views: Venezuela
UNITED NATIONS
Venezuela complained on Friday that the United Nations Security Council was not respecting the views of its non-permanent members, after abstaining on a vote for at least the seventh time this year and saying it was shut out of negotiations.
Despite Venezuela's abstention, the 15-member council renewed an arms embargo and targeted sanctions regime on Somalia and Eritrea with 14 votes in favor. A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the permanent members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France - to pass.
"My country demands respect in this Security Council. Respect ... for the points of view of all countries be they permanent or elected members to the Security Council," Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Rafael Ramirez told the council.
Ramirez, a former Venezuelan foreign minister, said the negotiating process for the resolution was not broad enough.
Ten of the Security Council members are elected by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. It is a common complaint among elected members that the five permanent members routinely exclude them from initial negotiations on some issues and that the situation has worsened in recent years.
New Zealand - a council member for 2015/2016 - also has complained about a "power imbalance" on the council due to the five veto-wielding members "who have become used to exercising their power and protective of their privileged position."
"That imbalance is exacerbated by their practices of pre-negotiating outcomes before engaging with the 10 elected members," New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key told the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on Oct. 1.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Paul Simao)
Received on Fri Oct 23 2015 - 13:54:27 EDT