The annual campaign to fill the temporary Security Council seats opening up this year has been jolted by a late and intensive effort by the US to remove Sudan as the chosen African candidate and promote a rival instead.
The US intervention, which has been denounced by Sudan and questioned by other nations, has forced an unexpected vote for the African seat on October 10, when the General Assembly will select five new countries to join the Security Council for two-year terms. “Only one of the seats will go to an African, and the US is trying to help line up support behind Mauritius, though Sudan had won the support of most Africans months ago and is considered the endorsed African candidate,” diplomats say.
“A superpower promoting a small country to contest another country against the will of the region is unprecedented,” Sudan's UN ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Ahmed Erwa said on Saturday. The permanent members should not get involved in such things. Mauritius had indicated that it wanted the African seat back in January, and Uganda has backed it. But western diplomats said that Mauritius has clearly been emboldened to pursue the underdog bid by the American intervention - although it remains to be seen how much support the country will be able to command. The United States has made it clear that it does not want to see Sudan on the Security Council, arguing that a country under UN sanctions and considered by US to be a sponsor of terrorism does not deserve such international recognition that a council seat confers. Bureau Report