UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6: The ‘Uniting for Consensus’ (UFC) group led by Pakistan and Italy on Friday urged UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to break an impasse on the Security Council reforms by “trying to promote some solution that would meet the interests of all member states and prevent division and confrontation.”
The UFC group met the UN chief after the African Union refused to sign a deal with the G-4 — Japan, Germany, India and Brazil — on their proposal to expand the UN Security Council which consequently doomed their resolution.
“We went to convey to the secretary-general that we support a reform of the UN Security Council. We believe a reform could be achieved through dialogue and by building consensus, a reform consistent with the principle of sovereign quality,” Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram told reporters after the meeting.
“We urged him to play a role in trying to promote some solution that would meet the interests of all member states and prevent division and confrontation,” he stressed.
In reply to a question, Mr Akram said Mr Annan’s response was positive, but added “he did not specify what he will do, but he will be helpful in trying to stave off confrontation and division. We’ll leave modalities to him.”
While conceding that the General Assembly president had the primary role in the reform process, Mr Akram underscored: “But no one can deny that the secretary-general has powers under the Charter to intercede when there are difficulties between member states.”
He said: “We believe that a vote will be disastrous and divisive. We urged him to bring about a compromise and our proposal can provide a basis for it.”
He said the member states should step back from the vote and initiate dialogue to work something out that “every one can agree on.”
