The incoming president of the UN Security Council on Friday urged Asian nations to avoid a vote between Iran and Japan for a non-permanent seat later this month.
Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui (張業遂) also expressed hope that Myanmar’s military government would set a date for a new visit by a UN special envoy pressing to open its political process.
Zhang, whose own government’s openness has been tested during the Beijing Olympics, took over as council president just a week after becoming UN ambassador, transferring from his post as a Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs.
On Oct. 17, the General Assembly will elect five nations to serve two-year stints on the council.
Along with the race between Iran and Japan for an Asian seat, two Western European seats will be chosen in a race among Austria, Iceland and Turkey. Uganda, representing Africa, and Mexico, representing Latin America, have been running unopposed.
“Agreements have to [be] reached within regional groups first. As a regional group, if Asia can reach agreement ... we will support it,” Zhang said in his first appearance as council president, a post that revolves monthly among ambassadors on the 15-nation council.
There has been widespread speculation, and some skepticism, among UN diplomats about whether a nation such as Iran, which is subject to UN sanctions over its nuclear program, should — or could — win a seat on the same council that approved the sanctions.
On Myanmar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who traveled to the Southeast Asian nation in May, has expressed deep frustration at the failure of its military junta to agree to efforts aimed at reforming itself.
Ban has been trying to encourage Myanmar to take real steps to include opponents led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest since her party overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military.
Ibrahim Gambari, a special envoy for Ban, visited Myanmar in August but failed to see Suu Kyi, who declined to meet with him.
Gambari has met with Suu Kyi seven times before.
“All the members of the council support the mediation efforts,” Zhang said after the council finished meeting privately to set its monthly agenda.
He expressed hope that Myanmar “will continue its close communication” with Gambari to agree on a date for a visit.
Zhang was also asked about North Korea, which began disabling its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon under an aid-for-disarmament pact negotiated by six nations, but abruptly stopped in mid-August and has started to restore its disabled reactor.
North Korea cited Washington’s refusal to remove it from a terrorism blacklist. The US maintains that the pact requires North Korea to submit to a thorough verification of its nuclear accounting — a demand rejected by the North.
Zhang stressed that the six-party talks “constitute a very effective mechanism” to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue.
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