OYALA (Equatorial Guinea) – Friday, 24 November 2023 (APS) – The president of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, said the unprecedented series of succeeding crises and conflicts in the world require that the international community, “today and more than ever,” deal with the issue of the UN Security Council reform with the “utmost diligence,” calling for righting the historical injustice done to the African continent.
In his address, read on his behalf Friday in Oyala, Equatorial Guinea, by the minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, during the works of the 5th African Union (AU) Summit of Group of Ten, concerned by the reform of the UN Security Council, President Tebboune said the summit “is being held in an international and regional context marked by many challenges and risks, against a backdrop of a sharp crisis that has shaken the collective security system, especially as the UN Security Council has been hit recently by near-complete paralysis.”
“The unprecedented succession of crises and conflicts and their proliferation, in the light of the inertia of the international community, which is facing difficulties in containing them, requires that this community, today and more than ever, address the UN Security Council reform issue with the utmost diligence and very rigorously,” the president of the Republic said.
In this respect, the president cited “the crisis situation prevailing in Africa, especially in the Sahel-Saharan region that suffers from terrorism, organized crime and the spread of foci of tension and instability, in addition to the huge tragedy of the Palestinians, which is taking alarming proportions because of the UN’s failure to stop the crimes of the Zionist occupation army and its violations of the international law.”
This situation, President Tebboune said, “brought the UN Security Council reform issue to the surface,” noting that the challenge of the reform is “not limited to the increase in the number of the emerging countries, on the top of which Africa,” as “the sustainability of the multipolar International Organization is now in question, given the scale of the logic of equality of forces, polarization and the criteria for selectivity and discrimination, with the need to abide by the rules of the international law.”
The president of the Republic deplored “the severe tensions and the major splits that now outline the international relations system.”
“Africa’s unified position must stress the need to develop an approach allowing this major UN body to be shielded from tensions and polarisation, and to focus more on its own role and responsibility in line with the UN Charter, insisting on a reform process restoring to the Council its effectiveness and ability to act against the increasing threats to international security and peace.”