DIPLOMATIC DISPATCH: The UN Security Council needs an urgent

facelift
By Saurabh Shukla
PUBLISHED: 23:03 GMT, 20 October 2013 | UPDATED: 23:03 GMT, 20 October 2013

The horseshoe high table, once considered the most sought-after international club, the
UN Security Council lies devalued, bruised and needs some urgent cure.
The big blow came last week as Saudi Arabia, an advocate of foreign military
intervention against Syria's government, rejected its rotating seat on the UN Security
Council, saying the body cannot deal with international conflicts.
For the oil-rich kingdom, a key US ally, this is the first time it has won a place among the
non-permanent members of the
body, along with Chad, Chile,
Lithuania and Nigeria.
The United Nations Security
Council was once the ultimate
international club, but has been
somewhat devalued of late
"The kingdom sees that the
method and work mechanism and the double standards in the Security Council prevent it
from properly shouldering its responsibilities towards world peace," the Saudi foreign
ministry explained the move in a statement.
Riyadh mentioned the Syrian conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as examples of
the UNSC's failures to ensure world peace. It also cited its inability to transform the
Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, an apparent reference to
Israel's alleged stockpile of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
But the real reason is also its uneasiness with the US engaging with Iran. Significantly,
Saudi Arabia also got support from Paris. "We share its frustration after the Security
Council's paralysis," said French foreign ministry spokesman, adding that Paris is
proposing reforms to the council's veto rights.
Opinion is sharply divided, and given Saudi Arabia's own duplicity and double standards
when it allows terrorist and jihadi groups to get funding from its territory the argument
may not be entirely justified, but this brings to the fore that the UN Security Council
needs urgent reforms and an expansion of the group of five permanent members. Such a
move would democratise the UN Security Council and make it more effective.