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| Kuwait, not Syria, to run for UN rights body |
| 2011-05-12 |
| [Arab News] Under pressure from fellow UN member states, Syria dropped plans to run for a seat on the top UN human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... body and allowed Kuwait to replace it as a candidate, UN diplomats said on Tuesday. Several UN diplomats told Rooters on condition of anonymity that Kuwait had confirmed to Western officials that it planned to declare its candidacy for a spot on the 47-nation Human Rights Council in the Asian category. They said Syria planned to trade candidacies with Kuwait, which was slated to run for the rights council in 2013, and drop out of the 2011 race for one of the four spots available to Asian countries. Other Asian candidates running this year are India, Indonesia and the Philippines. There was no immediate confirmation from Syrian officials. Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari, asked by Rooters if Damascus ...The City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... had agreed to trade places with Kuwait and postpone its candidacy until 2013, said there was "so far nothing." One diplomat told Rooters that an "Asian group meeting will have to be called to confirm these changes." Other envoys said the Asian voting group, which includes Asia and the Middle East, would meet to discuss the issue on Wednesday. Another Western diplomat said Syria's withdrawal from the 2011 race and Kuwait's candidacy was "great news." The 192-nation UN General Assembly will hold its annual elections for one third of the seats on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on May 20. |
| Posted by:Fred |