Kuwait’s Ambassador to the UN, Mansour Al-Otaibi, has affirmed that the Arab League has called for permanent Arab representation at the Security Council.
Otaibi made the announcement during his speech before the UN General Assembly on behalf of the Arab Group. According to the Kuwaiti official, the Arab Group deserves its own representation in the expanded Security Council as a separate group owing to its political, cultural and heritage specificity.
Earlier this year, Otaibi called for a permanent Arab seat at the Council with full powers during his address of the 75th session of the General Assembly for intergovernmental negotiations, on the issue of “fair representation in the Security Council and increasing the number of its members and related issues.”
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The need for the seat, Otaibi explained was “based on objective criteria represented by the Arab population density and the number of Arab countries in the United Nations”.
At the time, he also added that his call stemmed from “the fact that a large part of the Council’s work and issues on its agenda relate to the Arabic region, which requires fair and proportionate Arab representation in the expanded council.”
The Gulf State was handed over the presidency of the Arab League by previous holder, Qatar, in September during the body’s 156th session.
For decades, there have been calls for reforms of the UN and its Security Council in relation to its membership and the powers of its five permanent members—each of whom have the power of veto. They are: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. There are also 10 non-permanent members, elected for two-year terms.
The Arab Group represents over 400 million people from 22 member countries, which represents about 12 per cent of the UN’s general membership.