NATO's UN Mandate in Libya To Expire Monday

The United Nations Security Council today agreed to lift its mandate authorizing military action in Libya, ending the UN-backed NATO mission to the country on October 31 2011.

The decision comes after Libya’s rebel forces declared liberation late last week and are currently in the process of forming a transitional government. Yesterday, Libya’s representative at the UN Ibrahim Dabbashi said his country supported the October 31 end date, but asked Council members to wait until his government had finished evaluating Libya’s security situation before making a final decision.

The extent to which the international community and Western countries will help Libya deal with security concerns after more than eight months of civil strife remains unclear. British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant confirmed that his government was in talks about providing security assistance to Libya’s National Transitional Council, but said the forms that assistance might take had yet to be determined.

The Security Council passed resolution 1973 in March after Col. Gaddafi promised large scale military action against towns and villages that had fallen in the hands of anti-government protesters. The resolution allowed for airstrikes to protect civilian populations under the threat of attack, but held provisions against the deployment of foreign troops on the ground.

But NATO’s implementation of the resolution has been criticized by Council members like Russia and South Africa, who say it exceeded its protection of civilian mandate by arming rebels and aiming to overthrow the Gaddafi regime.

Earlier this month, Russia used its veto to block a resolution condemning Syrian government violence against civilians, arguing that the Libyan resolution had raised important concerns about the implementation and interpretation of Council actions.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin today welcomed the decision to end NATO’s mandate, but said the Council had to learn from its mistakes in Libya if it wanted member states to work closely together in the future.

“We believe that numerous violations of resolution 1973 have taken place in the course of the past few months, we have repeatedly discussed that in the Security Council,” he told reporters outside the Council. “We’ve had a number of grievances we continue to have them in terms of the effectiveness and legality of the work of the Security Council.”

US Ambassador Susan Rice defended NATO’s interpretation of the UN mandate and dismissed any link between the Syrian and Libyan situations.

“The effort to use Libya as an excuse not to act in other contexts is not a fair one or an accurate one. It was very clear, as we discussed and negotiated resolution 1973 what the authorization of the use of force to protect civilians would entail.” she said “Undoubtedly as this unfolded and occurred over the course of some months, there were those that found increasingly uncomfortable what it was they had agreed to. But to suggest somehow they were mislead, is false.”

Pakistan, Three Others, Win Security Council Seats

A day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned officials in Islamabad about supporting terrorist networks, the General Assembly voted to elect Pakistan as a new member of the United Nations Security Council. 

Guatemala, Morocco and Togo will also join the UN’s prestigious security body as new non-permanent members in January 2012.

Non-permanent members compete for seats within regional blocks and need to receive at least 2/3 of votes from the General Assembly’s 194 member states.

 Guatemala and Pakistan each secured seats for America and Asia respectively, while Morocco took one of Africa’s two available spots in the the first round of voting.Togo eventually defeated Mauritania in a third round of voting for the other African seat.

Eastern Europe’s spot on the Council has yet to be decided, with both candidates Slovenia and Azerbaijan failing to receive support from a majority of states after nine rounds of voting. Security Council elections are expected to resume Monday morning.

All five eventual choices will be taking over from non-permanent members Lebanon, Brazil, Nigeria, Gabon and Bosnia Herzegovina, whose two year terms are set to expire at the end of 2011.

Palestinian UN Bid Moving One Small Step at a Time

The UN Security Council today agreed to refer Palestinian application for UN membership to a special committee which will begin examining its request Friday.

Council members met briefly this morning to make the announcement, the first step in a process that could likely take weeks, or longer, before any final decision. 

The Palestinian Authority’s Envoy at the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters he was pleased Security Council members had started the initial process preparing for deliberation over Palestine’s admission request .

” As you see, the process is moving forward step by step, and we hope that the Security Council will shoulder its responsibility and approve our application…” he told reporters outside the Security Council. 

 The Palestinian Authority would need 9 of the Security Council’s 15 members to vote in favor of the resolution, with no votes against coming from the security body’s five veto-wielding permanent members.(China, Russia, France, UK, US)

American officials have already indicated they would veto a resolution on Palestinian UN membership should it come before the Security Council, although it remains unclear if the the Palestinian Authority has secured the necessary 9 votes of support from other members of the Council. 

The Palestinian envoy also condemned the Israeli government’s decision yesterday to approve the construction of over 1000 housing units in East Jerusalem, calling it “provocative”, “illegal” and evidence the Netanyahu government has no regard for the international community’s peace plan. 

Mansour said the move was “a clear answer by the Israeli government to the Quartet, to negotiations and to the refusal of abiding by the global consensus on the fact that settlements are legal obstacle to peace and they need to be stopped.”

“This speaks clearly that Israel is not interested in negotiating with us, in spite of the fact they say they like to do so. Their action speaks louder than what they say verbally.” he added.

The Palestinian President and Israeli Prime Minister butted heads over the issue of settlements in their speeches last week to the General Assembly, with Mahmoud Abbas arguing that continued expansion was preventing the resumption of negotiations and Benjamin Netanyahu charging back that it was the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, not settlements, that had ended talks. 

The UN and the large majority of international community consider settlement activity to be illegal. The Obama administration’s official position is that they are illegitimate and an impedement to the peace process. 

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor dismissed Mansour’s accusations over the latest settlement expansion, arguing that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people, but also conceding that Israeli officials would be open to negotiations on the matter.  

“Every thing is on the table, everything is negotiable. I hear the Palestinians using every pretext in order to find a reason not to go into negotiations. All we want… is for both sides to sit down and negotiate everything, nothing is off the table.” he told reporters outside the Security Council. “We’ve started a process, and the process at the end of the day should be between Palestinians and Israelis talking about everything without any preconditions, in Jerusalem and in Ramallah.” 

The Middle East Quartet -Russia, United States, European Union and United Nations- issued a statement last week after Abbas filed the Palestinian request for UN membership, appealing to both sides to urgently return to negotiations and respect their obligations under the Middle East Roadmap. 

The Quartet statement also outlines timeline for the possible resumption of negotiations and calls on both parties to submit proposals on territory and security within the next three months.

Both Mansour and Prosor said their governments were in the process of reviewing the Quartet statement and expected official responses by the end of the week. 

Palestinians Seek Path to New Status at UN

As questions surrounding the procedural details of Palestine’s bid for UN admission continue to go unanswered, Palestinian representatives have made one thing clear: next Friday President Mahmoud Abbas will tell the world body his country has the right to join the international community.

Recognition as a full fledged member state would require unanimous support from the UN Security Council, but the US has already indicated it would use its veto at the security body to prevent such a move. 

Palestinian leadership could also settle for an upgrade to its observer status by seeking recognition through the General Assembly, where it expects to receive the necessary 2/3 majority of votes, but some Palestinian officials view the General Assembly path as the lesser option. 

“We are considering all these options, but the final decision has not been made..If one road is blocked we will follow another one, but the objective is still the same.”  Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Authority representative at the UN told reporters outside the Security Council. 

Mansour says President Abbas continues to engage in discussions with regional organizations like the EU and Arab League but that the decision to seek Palestinian recognition at the world body had already been made. 

“The issue of the state of Palestine will be resolved. It will not be up for discussion any more, regardless of its status at the UN, whether it is a full member or observer member, we are a state and it will be legislated at the UN that we will be a state.“  

In a press conference earlier today, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said it was up to UN member states to reach a decision on the Palestinian bid for admission.

Ban said his role as Secretary General was limited to technical oversight of issues surrounding the request. 

“I have not received any application yet. If I receive it then I will refer it to the Security Council.”

The UN chief also said he was profoundly troubled by the lack of progress in the Middle East Peace process and urged both sides to return to the negotiation table as quickly as possible.

  “I’m asking them[Israeli and Palestinians] to enter into meaningful negotiation and the international community has a duty to create some conditions favorable to this.” he told reporters. “Israel has a duty to create such conditions, issuing all these new settlements has not been helpful. At the same time Palestinians should also try to sit together with the Israeli people.” 

Palestinian leadership walked away from talks last September after the Israeli government refused to extend a freeze on settlement construction. 

The Obama administration made use of its Security Council veto for the first time earlier this year when it blocked the passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. The US was the only Security Council member to vote against the resolution.

 In a New York Times Op-Ed earlier this week, Saudi Prince Turki al Faisal warned American officials a veto of the Palestinian statehood initiative could fatally undermine US credibility in the region and even strengthen Iran. 

 Former US President Jimmy Carter also came out in favor of the Palestinian bid earlier this week, saying he “reluctantly” supported the move as a legitimate alternative to the current stalemate in negotiations

Sudanese Clergy, Rights Groups Want Peacekeepers in South Kordofan

A Christian clergyman from Sudan has called on the United Nations to send peacekeepers to his region to protect civilians.

Andulu Adam Elnail, the Anglican Bishop of Kadugli, warned at a news conference that “something crucial is going on in the Nuba mountains that the world needs to observe and address.”

The Kadugli and Nuba Mountain region of South Kordofan in Sudan are outside the new country of South Sudan but the Nuba people of the region have typically been allied with the forces that achieved independence for South Sudan.

Bishop Andulu said the events surrounding South Sudan’s independence and admission to the United Nations have overshadowed continued violence in other parts of the country.

 A leaked UN report from June on the security situation in South Kordofan  alleges Sudanese Armed Forces could be implicated in serious human rights violations including forced disappearances, targeting of UN staff and summary executions.  The UN maintains it has yet to officially finalize the report, but expects it will be released shortly.

The Bishop and representatives from human rights groups were in New York Friday to meet informally with members of the Security Council, ahead of the council’s consultation on Sudan August 11th. Their news conference was organized by the US Mission to the UN. 

Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, (CPA)had provisions for Public Consultations on the future of the Nuba people in South Kordofan. That consultation has yet to take place and talks broke down after contested provincial elections this spring.

Northern government officials in Khartoum declined to renew the UNMIS (United Nation Mission in Sudan) mandate which expired July 9th, leaving the world body unable to even monitor or investigate reported civilian deaths and rights violations.

Human Rights Watch  Global Advocacy Director Peggy Hicks says she hopes a Council member like South Africa  can take the lead to help the UN or some combination of the African Union and the Arab League deploy a peacekeeping force in the area. 

Hicks says the that although many of the reports of rights abuses and war crimes still can’t be verified, there are enough alarming indicators to warrant concrete Security Council action. 

“We know that as many as 200 000 people have been displaced” she told reporters. “There is also no denying that the bombing is ongoing. The UN in its bases can hear that, and we have all sorts confirmed accounts of the bombing and shelling that has occurred. We don’t know the full extent of it,but we do have strong evidence to suggest that both indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are going on that are leading to a significant amount of civilian loss of life.”

Bishop Andulu also voiced concern over the nationality of any potential monitoring force. He says Egyptian peacekeepers stationed in Southern Kordofan failed to prevent attacks against civilians, and he pointed out Egypt’s close ties to the government in Khartoum and similar cultural and religious backgrounds.

 “We need troops that will be neutral, to be able to see all the sides.” he said, adding that he would be open to the same type of peacekeeping force agreed upon for Abyei. 

In July, Khartoum and Juba agreed to allow an Ethiopian led UN -African Union peacekeeping force UNISFA(United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei) to deploy to the disputed Abyei region.

A resource rich region that straddles the border between North and South, Abyei was also scheduled to hold its own referendum this year, but officials from both countries have been unable to reach an agreement on who should be eligible to vote.  

Sudanese Armed Forces carried out strikes and took control of towns in the region in May, after Southern rebel groups apparently attacked UN escorted Northern troops. Government forces were subsequently accused of looting and burning down villages, forcing of tens of thousands of civilians from their homes.

Earlier this week, four UNISFA  peacekeepers were killed after their vehicle struck a landmine in Abyei. The Sudanese government reportedly delayed their medical evacuation by air for three hours, a move condemned in statements by both US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.