Notes by Ambassador George Nene on the UN Security Council, Thursday 31 January 2008, Union Buildings, Pretoria

Last week our briefing focused on an assessment of our first year as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.  We also highlighted some of the issues likely to be prominent this year.
 
Iran 

There have been no serious developments since Deputy Minister Pahad briefed the media on 29 January. The elected members of the Security Council have still not seen the full text of the resolution and most, including South Africa, have therefore not taken a position on the matter. The ‘EU3+3’ (also known as ‘P5+1’ – US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) apparently intend to discuss the resolution with the elected Security Council members individually.

As Deputy Minister Pahad has pointed out, South Africa has noted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s recent successful visits to Iran and the obvious progress that is being made in terms of the work plan agreed between the IAEA and Iran. South Africa hopes that no party would take actions that would undermine the progress that is being made within the context of the IAEA.

Western Sahara

Resolution 1783(2007) adopted on 31 October 2007 extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for six months, until 30 April 2008.  The resolution also requested the Secretary-General to provide a report by 31 January 2008 on the status and progress of the negotiations under his auspices, and expresses its intention to meet to receive and discuss this report. The Security Council will convene on 4 February 2008 to receive a briefing from the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr Peter van Walsum on the report.

A recent round of negotiations took place in Manhasset, Long Island, New York from 7-9 January 2008. The meeting (the third held thus far) followed the format of the previous meetings in that it was facilitated by Mr van Walsum. In an official communiqué, agreed to by both parties, the Personal Envoy informed that the two parties continued to express strong differences on the fundamental questions at stake but still reiterated their commitment to show political will and negotiate in good faith. Confidence-building measures, and discussion of thematic subjects such as administration, competencies and organs formed part of the agenda.  Outcomes of the third meeting will be made known to you after the Council has been briefed by Mr Van Walsum on 4 February 2008. 

The next round of negotiations will take pace in Manhasset on 11-13 March 2008. Mr van Walsum will be visiting the region soon to meet with all the parties.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

South Africa is pleased that the Council this week adopted a resolution that authorises MONUC, the UN Mission in the DRC, to assist the DRC authorities in the preparations for the local elections to be held this year.  This followed a request from the DRC government.

Under consideration also as we speak is a statement that the Council will issue in reaction to the recent peace conference that has been concluded in Goma between the Government of the DRC and some of the movements there.  We think that the UNSC should indicate its support for this important development in the DRC.

UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE)

Also this week the Council is finalising a resolution on the situation in Ethiopia /Eritrea. This resolution would extend the mandate of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) by six months.  Given the situation we think it is important that this mandate is being extended for another six months. 

UNSC Subsidiary body – Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa

In our briefing last week, we mentioned that South Africa will Chair the Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa. Our Permanent Representative to the UN convened the first meeting of the Working Group recently. He pointed out that a culture of prevention is already taking hold at the United Nations, and awareness of the importance of prevention and the commitment to build and mainstream its tools have spread and taken root.

Security Sector Reform

On Tuesday 29 January in Addis Ababa the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Dlamini-Zuma took part in a launch of the outcomes of a workshop on security sector reform which South Africa hosted in November 2007.  

During 2007 South Africa and Slovakia decided to advance the development of the concept of Security Sector Reform at the United Nations and regional organisations, such as the African Union. We felt that even though many countries are undertaking constructive projects throughout the world and especially in Africa to help countries emerging from conflict to reform inter alia their police force, armies and judiciaries, there is neither a common understanding of the concept of Security Sector Reform, nor a common approach to it, particularly within the African context.

We co-hosted an international workshop in Cape Town on 7 and 8 November 2007. Close to fifty countries, including 25 from Africa, regional organisations, UN bodies and leading South African and international think-tanks and academic institutions were represented at this meeting. The discussions were certainly rich and we would like to express our appreciation to the United Nations Development Programme and partner countries such as Canada, Norway and Switzerland for the assistance they provided.

Middle East

South Africa joined other Council members in expressing regret that the Security Council had once again failed to respond to the extreme humanitarian situation in Palestine and the grave threat the Middle East crisis poses to international peace and security.

These are the issues that the mission and ourselves and other members of the Security Council were busy with since the last briefing that you were given.

Questions and answers

Question:  Kenya at the moment is on the spotlight at the African Union Summit, is there any likelihood that it could come before the Security Council?  Perhaps you could walk us through the kind of process that would occur for a matter like that.  The death toll now is now close to a thousand with the amount of violence, numerous mediation efforts failing, there was a statement overnight urging calm on both sides and urging to focus on the talks mediated by the former Secretary-General.  But to understand the process that would bring Kenya before the Security Council.

Answer:  My understanding is that the Security Council met and urged the Secretary-General to play an important role.  That is why the Secretary-General will probably meet the members of the AU during the AU conference in Addis now.  But the Security Council did meet and expressed its concern and decided to hand this matter over to the Secretary-General to deal with it, probably to come back to report to them and then maybe they’ll see how to take it further.

Question:  Did they meet, the Security Council?

Answer:  The Security Council did meet two days ago.  So it’s in the hands of the Secretary-General.  He’ll come back and give a report to the members of the Council.

Question:  What’s your general position on sanctions against Iran which are said to be included in the draft resolution?

Answer:  As I said to you and as the Deputy Minister did indicate, whatever the Council decides we hope does not undermine the progress that has been reached so far, because we take that as part of the confidence building measures between Iran and the United Nations and the international community as such, that’s one.  Two, this confidential one-on-one, one against six meeting as decided by the P5 plus one our delegation has not yet met them.  I think they’ll be meeting today, so our ambassador and officials in New York will be hearing from the drafters of the resolution.  So I don’t want to pre-empt what’s going to be said, I don’t know.  Our Ambassadors have not told us anything, so we’ll wait for that report.

Question:  But generally do you think that sanctions are helpful to the process?

Answer:  To which process?

Question: The process of negotiations with Iran.

Answer:  Sanctions you know as a tool which is a tool to assist they take a different form.  So if sanctions are used to assist in a situation and the two parties agree, to me those sanctions would be welcomed. But for now I don’t know what is in the text, they’ve not shared it with us.  So I don’t know which line this resolution is going to take.

Question:  Could you tell us what is the tenure of South Africa’s chairmanship of the ad hoc committees. And also maybe a bit more on the kind of conflict and the way it relates to those conflicts in Africa.

Answer:  Anything that is related to the Security Council when we stop by the end of the year becoming a member of the Security Council we’ll also stop all the responsibilities that were give to South Africa.  And then next year obviously when the Council meets again whoever comes in in our place will then decide who takes what.  But generally the one which we welcome therefore is because of most conflicts as you know are found in the continent.  As you heard when I said that our ambassador held the first meeting and our impression is that within the UN the issue of prevention, which has always been a big issue in the AU that is why the AU had developed early warning systems.  Our approach is that if you can prevent conflicts all the better.  So that’s the approach we take.  And we would wish that we had less conflicts and we would wish that by the time December ends we’d have less conflicts and we’d say we also participated in contributing to limiting or ending conflicts in the continent.  I know it sounds optimistic, but you have to remain optimistic if you are in this business.

Question:  On the Iran nuclear issue, when the Iranians say the Security Council members should wait until March or the end of February when the negotiations with the IAEA are concluded and the report of Mohamed ElBaradei of the IAEAis prepared at that time, do you agree with that position?  Do you think the Security Council members should wait until that report is prepared?  And the second question is will you be negotiating with the Iranians separately as you do with the group of 5 plus one today?

Answer:  Let me start with the first one.  We negotiate with the Iranians most of the time at their request.  And if they come and request that South Africa look we have a different take on this resolution, we will definitely discuss with them.  For now, to me just from a humanitarian point of view, one month cannot cause a nuclear disaster.  But I don’t know what the P5 plus One have in their mind and what it is they are going discuss with our delegation in New York, because as you know that the rules of the game in the Security Council most of the time are dictated by these P5.  So I don’t know.  If they agree between the two parties all the better, and all the better also for the report that is coming at the end of the month.

Question:  Sorry Ambassador can I just have clarity on that, is that your own personal view that a month wouldn’t hurt or is that an official view?

Answer:  General view mine.  Government has not pronounced on that, because government does not know what the P5 plus One is going to present this morning in New York, this afternoon in South Africa.  When we have that we’ll make the necessary assessment and give it to our political principals and then they will react to that officially.

Question:  Have you had any discussions with other members on this issue with a view to forming a common response?  

Answer:  No not yet.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

31 January 2008