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At UN debate, Kuwaiti leader calls for Security Council seats for Arab and Islamic nations

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al Mubarak al Hamad al Sabah of Kuwait addresses the General Assembly.
UN Photo/Marco Castro
Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al Mubarak al Hamad al Sabah of Kuwait addresses the General Assembly.

At UN debate, Kuwaiti leader calls for Security Council seats for Arab and Islamic nations

The Arab and Islamic world must be properly represented on an expanded Security Council, Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al Mubarak al Hamad al Sabah told the United Nations General Assembly today.

“The State of Kuwait reaffirms the need to reform the Security Council to reflect the new international reality, and guarantee the rights of Arab and Islamic States in being represented in conformity with their size, their contributions, and their role in advocating the objectives and the principles of the Charter,” the Prime Minister said at the Assembly’s General Debate, which started on Tuesday.

Enlargement of the 15-member Council has been an ongoing concern of many countries over the years with various states and regions seeking permanent representation.

The Prime Minister also reaffirmed Kuwait’s commitment to international efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria, where over 18,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others driven from their home since an uprising against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad erupted 18 months ago.

He called on the international community to provide more humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people both inside and outside their country.

The Kuwaiti leader also appealed to Iran to cooperate with international efforts to reach a political settlement on its nuclear programme and dispel doubts surrounding its goals and purpose.

Iran’s nuclear programme – which its officials have stated is for peaceful purposes, but some other countries contend is aimed at producing nuclear weapons – has been a matter of international concern since the discovery in 2003 that the country had concealed its nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty NPT).

The Director General of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, last week said that Iran is not providing the cooperation needed to provide credible assurance to conclude that all nuclear material is for peaceful activities.

The Kuwaiti Prime Minister also denounced Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories as a testament to the inability of the international community to end the plight of the Palestinians, citing Israeli settlement activities and other “gross violations of international; conventions and norms.”

Scores of heads of State and government and other high-level officials are presenting their views and comments on issues of individual national and international relevance at the Assembly’s General Debate, which ends on 1 October.