The UN Security Council was set Monday to adopt a resolution empowering states to send warships into Somalia's territorial waters with the government's consent to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea. The French-US text, under discussion since late April and amended at the request of Indonesia, was expected to receive unanimous support from the council's 15 members later in the day, according to diplomats traveling in east Africa as part of a council delegation.The agreement came after the sponsors reached a compromise with Indonesia last Friday ensuring that the anti-piracy drive would specifically target lawless Somalia.
Indonesia had raised concerns that measures adopted to tackle piracy off the Somali coast should not set a precedent for international intervention in its own piracy-prone waters.
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The draft would give a six-month mandate to states cooperating with Somalia's transitional government (TFG) in fighting piracy to "enter the territorial waters of Somalia for the purposes of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea."
The states must do so "in a manner consistent with such action permitted on the high seas with respect to piracy under relevant international law," it added, while the TFG must provide advance notification of such action to the UN secretary general.
The draft also urges states whose naval vessels and military aircraft operate on the high seas and in airspace off the coast of Somalia "to increase and coordinate their efforts to deter acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea in cooperation with the TFG."
It also calls on them to cooperate with interested organizations, including the International Maritime Organization, to ensure that "vessels entitled to fly their flag receive appropriate guidance and training on avoidance, evasion, and defensive techniques and to avoid the area whenever possible."
The text, which cites Chapter Seven of the UN Charter invoked in cases of threats to international peace and security, also urges all states "to render assistance to vessels threatened by or under attack by pirates or armed robbers, in accordance with relevant international law."