Saudi Gazette report NEW YORK – Saudi Arabia has reiterated its call for increasing the number of UN Security Council members and restricting the use of veto power. Such measures would enable the Security Council to fulfill its obligations to maintain peace and security in the world today, Kingdom's permanent representative to UN Abdullah Al-Moalimi said in a speech at the meeting of UN General Assembly dedicated to negotiations among governments on the reform of the Security Council here on Friday. He said that the Kingdom supports expanding the membership of the Security Council to include permanent seats for Arab and African countries as well as others. Al-Moalimi reiterated the Kingdom's call for permanent members of the Security Council to stop the use of its veto power in cases of crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing. He said that the Security Council was no longer able to cope with the challenges as proved by its semi-paralysis in solving the Mideast and Syrian problems. Al-Moalimi clarified that his speech does not reflect pessimism or despair, but another attempt by the Kingdom to sound the alarm about the need for reform. He confirmed the Kingdom's commitment to work with the UN and its member states in a comprehensive, fair, transparent and efficient manner in order to move forward in the process of reforming the Security Council. The GCC higher council on Wednesday praised calls made by Saudi Arabia for UN reforms. In its final communique after a two-day meeting of its leaders, the GCC described Saudi Arabia's stance toward the UN as a “historic concern over Arab and Islamic worlds issues.” Last month, Saudi Arabia officially informed the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that it was “regrettably” not in a position to fill the Security Council non-permanent seat it was elected to on October 17. In a letter to Ban, Al-Moalimi said: “I wish to inform you that the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has decided to advise you that Saudi Arabia will regrettably not be in a position to assume its seat in the Security Council to which it was elected on October 17 for the period 2014-2015.” He explained that the reasons for this decision “have been articulated in the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia dated October 18.”
