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-- Anonymous, October 08, 2001

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WIRE: 10/08/2001 12:32 am ET

Syria wins seat on U.N. Security Council despite being on U.S. list of terrorism sponsors

The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Syria won a seat on the U.N. Security Council on Monday with overwhelming support from the nations of the world, despite being on the U.S. list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

The General Assembly elected Syria to the powerful U.N. body for a two-year term on the first ballot. It received 160 "yes" votes from the 177 nations voting.

Guinea, Cameroon and Bulgaria were also elected on the first ballot. Mexico defeated the Dominican Republic for a Latin American seat.

Syria was the unanimous choice of Arab and Asian nations for the Asian seat on the council being vacated by Bangladesh on Jan. 1. Candidates that have unanimous regional support are almost always elected.

Last year, the United States led a successful campaign to keep Sudan, also on the U.S. list of terrorism sponsors, off the council.

But this year, despite opposition from Israel and a last-minute appeal from 38 members of the U.S. Congress to President Bush to oppose Syria's candidacy, the U.S. administration has remained silent.

U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham, arriving for Monday's election, said: "It's a secret ballot."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry said Syria's election went against the "spirit and letter" of the U.N. Charter, which stipulates that every candidate for the Security Council "should prove its adequacy in terms of its contribution to international peace and security."

"Syria indeed backs terrorist groups inside Syria and outside Syria," Lancry said. "It is really a sheer absurdity and a sheer nonsense to have Syria as a member of the Security Council."

But Saudi Arabia's U.N. ambassador, Fawzi Shobokshi, countered Monday that "Syria deserves to be a member of the Security Council ... because they represent a responsible government and the world's people, and play an important role in our part of the world."

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

One major difference between last year's election and this year's is that Syria was running unopposed while Sudan was running against Mauritius in a hotly contested race.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Erwa, said Monday that there were differences between his country and the United States last year.

Washington declared its position and "pressed everybody" to vote for Mauritius, a small Indian Ocean nation, he said. "But Syria is opposed only by Israel, not by anybody else."

The political climate is also different, especially following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The United States has been trying to enlist Syria's help in its global anti-terrorism campaign, and Syrian President Bashar Assad has condemned the attacks.

But Rep. Eliot L. Engel, a New York Democrat who collected 38 congressional signatures Friday in a letter to Bush, said allowing Syria to join the council would send "precisely the wrong signal to the international community at this critical time and would be counterproductive to America's efforts to put a halt to global terror."

The Security Council, the top U.N. decision-making body, is made up of 15 members. Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States hold permanent seats. Ten nonpermanent members are elected to two-year terms five every year.

Guinea and Cameroon won two African seats being vacated by Mali and Tunisia, and Bulgaria defeated Belarus for an East European seat held by Ukraine.

-- Anonymous, October 08, 2001

Posted 5:54 PM Central

Tuesday, October 9 10:27 PM SGT

Syria hails UN seat as "victory" over Israel, terror charges

DAMASCUS, Oct 9 (AFP) - Syrie on Tuesday celebrated its election to the UN Security Council as a double triumph: a diplomatic coup over Israel and an exoneration of charges against Damascus of support for terrorism.

President Bashar al-Assad said his country would "do its best to serve Arab and Islamic causes, and just causes in the world", the official SANA news agency reported.

Diplomats said Syria's seat in the Security Council would enable Damascus to turn world attention, which has been focused on the Arab and Muslim worlds ever since last month's anti-US terror attacks, more toward the Jewish state.

"Syria has scored a great diplomatic and political victory. The election to the Security Council was the result of its wise and intelligent policies," the ruling Baath party said in its newspaper of the same name.

"Israel tried to prevent Syria winning a Council seat" with charges that Damascus supports terrorism "but the international community has thrown out the accusations," said Al-Baath.

It said the vote also proved "the just position of Syria which backs the fight against terrorism without confusing this phenomenon with resistance against (Israeli) occupation."

For the first time in more than 30 years, Syria, a country listed by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism, was elected Monday to the Security Council as a non-permanent member for a two-year term starting in January.

Syria was elected in a secret ballot by 160 members of the 189-vote UN General Assembly.

In Israel, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned Syria's success as "a bad joke", especially coming at a time when the international community has declared war on terrorism.

"The worst thing is that the international community hasn't even asked as a condition of entry that Syria clamp down on the headquarters of the (Palestinian radical) organisations" based in Damascus, added Gissin.

Damascus denies Israel's terrorism accusations, maintaining that the Palestinian organisations Hamas and Islamic Jihad which it backs as well as Lebanon's Hezbollah are only "resisting" Israeli occupation.

An official Syrian spokesman said after the vote that Damascus would "cooperate for peace with member countries of the Security Council and other states."

In a line to be hammered home within the Security Council, the government daily Tishrin said "Syria, like the other Arab and Islamic states, deems any anti-terrorist political or military action useless if Israel is not targeted."

A Western diplomat posted in Damascus said the Security Council seat would have a number of positive repercussions for Syria.

"Syria now represents the Arab world and, to a certain respect, the Islamic world in the Security Council. It has thus become the interlocutor of the major powers," he said.

"And given that the Council likes to take decisions unanimously, the powers will have to listen to Syria's point of view on the difference between terrorism and resistance."

The diplomat also said Syria would serve as an obstacle to any attempted Security Council resolution to target radical anti-Israeli groups as part of the fight against terrorism

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001