Lebanon to be Elected Non-Permanent Security Council Member
The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday will elect Lebanon as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for a two-year term starting Jan.1, 2010.
The Council currently has five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France — and 10 non-permanent members who serve two-year terms and have no power to veto resolutions.
The 10 elected members 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.
Five countries are elected every year by the General Assembly to replace five retiring ones.
Lebanon”s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nawaf Salam said Lebanon”s non-permanent member status "can be a catalyst for us to stabilize the country and strengthen our domestic consensus."
"We want to turn from a plaza to a state … This is an opportunity we must seize," Salam said in remarks published by several Beirut dailies.
An Nahar newspaper had quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Lebanon”s non-permanent member status will not help it in forcing Israel to implement Security Council resolutions on Lebanon, particularly resolutions 1559 and 1701.
Article 27 of the U.N. Charter also states that a party to a dispute should abstain from voting on any draft resolution.