October 15, 2001	Monday	Rajab 27, 1422

DAMASCUS: Syria, which is on a list of states that the United States says sponsor terrorism, has won a rotating seat on the prestigious 15-member UN Security Council, and unlike the controversy over Sudan last year, Washington could do nothing to stop its confirmation Monday.

Syria was the unanimous choice to replace Bangladesh in an Asian seat on the council on Jan 1, and it received 160 “yes” votes out of 177 ballots cast in the UN General assembly this week.

“The success by such an overwhelming majority undoubtedly affirms the international community’s rejection of Israeli allegations linking Syria with terrorism,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Israel was the only UN member to oppose Syria’s bid for a two-year term on the powerful UN decision-making body. Several Jewish organizations and 38 US legislators also last week urged US President George W. Bush to oppose Syria’s election.

Visibly elated, Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mikhail Wehbe, described the huge votes obtained by Syria as a ”very excellent message to the world”.

Saudi Arabia believed Syria deserved to be a member of the Security Council “because it plays an important role” in the Middle East.

The council is made up of 10 non-permanent members, with no veto power, and five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — wielding veto power.

By its membership on the council, which starts in January, Syria would automatically belong to a high-level committee, chaired by Britain, which will implement a new counter-terrorism resolution.

“Syria’s membership would not be a privilege but a serious and responsible work that aims at contributing in preserving international peace and security and consolidating UN charter and role in solving the problems facing the world today,” an official statement by the Foreign Ministry said.

In an editorial, Syria’s state-run Al-Baath newspaper said that Damascus wanted to join the council out of its “real concern to see the world enjoy peace and security on the basis of international legitimacy”.

With the start of the air strikes against Afghanistan there was “an increasing need for a voice that calls for the importance of consolidating peace, security and cooperation in this world”, it said.

Unlike the hullabaloo over Sudan last year, the United States made no move to block the process. “It was much easier to mount a challenge last year because African nations had two candidates competing for one seat — Sudan and Mauritius. The US campaign, against Sudan, led to Mauritius’s victory,” one western diplomat said.

After Syria won the seat, David Malone of the International Peace Academy, a think-tank based in New York, said “anyone tempted to oppose Syria should have thought long and hard about it.”

US officials travelling with Secretary of State Colin Powell during his last Middle East tour indicated that Syria’s candidacy could be used as leverage to make it comply with sanctions against Iraq.

They said that Syria would be forced to put the oil it receives from Iraq under UN supervision to avoid being a violator of the Security Council sanctions. Industry sources say Syria has been pumping 100,000 barrels of Iraqi oil every day since November, bypassing the UN system.

Since the Sept 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the United States has launched an intensive effort to build an international coalition to combat terrorism, and the Bush administration has been soliciting Syria’s cooperation in its campaign.

Syria has said it is ready to support an international effort to combat terrorism that distinguishes between terror and resistance to occupation, such as the Palestinian uprising — a stand that puts it at odds with the United States.

“The whole world should be aware that Israel is embodying blind terrorism. It misleads the international community and works on taking advantages of the latest tragic terrorist acts in the United States so as to cover its crimes,” Suleiman Qaddah of the ruling Baath party said last week. —Dawn/InterPress Service.