{"id":162744,"date":"2018-05-04T20:42:44","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T00:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=162744"},"modified":"2018-05-05T12:36:13","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T16:36:13","slug":"israel-pulls-out-of-race-for-a-seat-on-un-security-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/05\/04\/israel-pulls-out-of-race-for-a-seat-on-un-security-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel pulls out of race for a seat on UN Security Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Security Council has five permanent members \u2014 the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France \u2014 and 10 members elected by the 193-member General Assembly for two-year term. (Photo: a katz \/ Shutterstock.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Facing an uphill struggle in an election next month, Israel announced Friday it was pulling out of a race for a seat on the\u00a0U.N.\u00a0Security Council.<\/p>\n

Israel was in a three-way contest with Germany and Belgium for two seats representing the Western-democratic group of nations on the\u00a0U.N.’s most powerful body starting in January.<\/p>\n

The Security Council has five permanent members \u2014 the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France \u2014 and 10 members elected by the 193-member General Assembly for two-year terms.<\/p>\n

Israel’s\u00a0U.N.\u00a0Mission said in a statement Friday that \u201cafter consulting with our partners, including our good friends, the State of Israel has decided to postpone its candidacy for a seat on the Security Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was decided that we will continue to act with our allies to allow for Israel to realize its right for full participation and inclusion in decision-making processes at the\u00a0U.N.,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThis includes the Security Council as well as an emphasis on areas related to development and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel’s withdrawal virtually guarantees Germany and Belgium victory in the June 8 election and seats on the council.<\/p>\n

Candidates for non-permanent seats on the Security Council are chosen by regional groups and for 55 years Israel was not part of a regional group, which barred it from many\u00a0U.N.\u00a0positions.<\/p>\n

The late U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke succeeded in 2000 in getting the Western European and Others regional group known as WEOG to invite Israel to be a temporary member, which later was extended indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Israel announced its withdrawal minutes before WEOG candidates were scheduled to appear and answer questions Friday afternoon from\u00a0U.N.\u00a0member states.<\/p>\n

Germany’s\u00a0U.N.\u00a0Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said in response to a question about Israel’s withdrawal: \u201cWe have never run against a country. There is nothing where we really oppose each other. We went for our own program. We asked support, and we want also to seek high support from you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that there’s been a lot of discussion at the\u00a0U.N.\u00a0on whether regional groups should put forward contested slates or uncontested slates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m in favour of having more candidates,\u201d Heusgen said, even though \u201cthis is tougher\u201d because candidates then have to say what they stand for and respond to sometimes tough questions about their country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo therefore to a certain degree \u2014 this will surprise you \u2014 I regret that Israel withdrew from the race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing an uphill struggle in an election next month, Israel announced Friday it was pulling out of a race for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[841,1746],"class_list":["post-162744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-news","category-news-w","tag-israel","tag-united-nations","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}