Egypt asks for two permanent seats for Africa in UNSC

Egypt's permanent delegate to the UN ambassador Ahmad Abul Gheit said that Africa has got the right to have two permanent seats in the Security Council (UNSC).

He added that Egypt had stressed, during the current negotiations on enlarging the membership of the (UNSC) the necessity of dedicating two permanent seats in addition to three non-permanent to Africa.

On State's trends towards enlarging UNSC membership, Abu Gheit said, "There are main groups that we should follow up their trends, the first of which is the European group which seems dedicating a permanent European seat in the would-be enlarged council to the European Union (EU)," "This would weaken, if it is endorsed, Germany's hopes on winning a permanent seat to put an end to the distinctive stature of France and Britain that have two permanent seats" he added.

On the Asian level, Abul Gheit said, "Japan has realized the difficulty of such enlargement due to radical conflicts among states in this regard.

So, it submitted a proposal on holding a special meeting of' UN General Assembly in 2003 at the level of foreign ministers to give push to this subject and to lay down new mechanisms to discuss it."