SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 29 March 2024, Friday |

UN delays action on Myanmar and Afghanistan’s bid for seats

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution Monday postponing action on Myanmar’s military junta and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers’ demands to take their respective nations’ seats at the United Nations.

Without a vote, Assembly President Abdulla Shahid banged his gavel to pass the proposal by consensus.

The 193-member international body’s decision implies that the ambassadors from the deposed administrations in Myanmar and Afghanistan will stay in their positions.

The motion was sponsored by Sweden’s UN Ambassador Anna Eneström, chair of the General Assembly’s Credentials Committee, which proposed last week that the UN postpone a decision on the two nations’ credentials. She stated that the nine-member committee has not planned another meeting and would not comment on how long the issue of credentials for Myanmar and Afghanistan will be postponed.

Myanmar’s military authorities attempted to replace Kyaw Moe Tun, the country’s UN ambassador, who had opposed their Feb. 1 overthrow of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seizure of the government.

Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said in July that he had been fired “because to abuses of his assigned job and mandate,” and that Aung Thurein, who retired from the military after 26 years, had been named Myanmar’s UN ambassador.

The Taliban questioned the credentials of Ghulam Isaczai, the ambassador from Afghanistan’s former government, whom they deposed on August 15, and wanted to replace him with Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesperson during peace talks in Qatar.

The decision of the Credentials Committee to postpone action means that Myanmar’s Thurein and the Taliban’s Shaheen will not replace their predecessors – at least for the time being.

Sweden, the United States, Russia, China, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Chile, Namibia, and Sierra Leone are all members of the credentials committee.

    Source:
  • Associated Press