PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

The Security Council would have a full agenda this month with Afghanistan, Africa and the Middle East, among other issues, Heraldo Muñoz, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for January, told correspondents this afternoon at Headquarters.

Briefing the press on the Council’s work programme for the month, he noted that Lakhdar Brahimi would brief the Council, for the last time in his capacity as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, on 15 January.  Also, the public meeting scheduled for 14 January on the reports of the West Africa and Central Africa missions had been moved to 23 January since the relevant reports would not be ready by the 14th.  The private meeting and consultations that had been scheduled for the morning of the 23rd would now take place in the afternoon.

He highlighted the open debate to be held on 26 January, at the initiative of Chile, on the role of the United Nations in post-conflict national reconciliation.  The Council placed a great deal of emphasis on stopping conflicts and on intervening to separate warring parties.  However, very often there was not much emphasis on what followed once the conflict was over.  The intention of the meeting was to focus on those factors which, if ignored, could lead to a resumption of conflict, as well as to focus on long-term peace and stability.  He hoped the meeting would result in concrete proposals.

Asked whether the Council was planning to play a role in the consultations on 19 January between the Secretary-General and the delegation from the Iraqi Governing Council, Mr. Muñoz said he could not exclude the possibility of having an open session with the Iraqi delegation, but nothing had been planned.  According to the Council’s programme of work, an open debate on small arms was scheduled for the 19th.

As for the Council’s regular monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General, he stated that he had reserved more places than usual in case there were additional guests.  He added that he would not push for anything that did not have the support of the 15 members of the Council.  He had no intention of pressuring for a meeting, because that would not reflect the will of the Council.  He did note, though, that there were some members that would like to have a session on Iraq.

On the Middle East, which the Council would take up on 16 January, Mr. Muñoz noted that that was a degree of frustration in the Council that the “Road Map” had not been fully implemented and a hope that the many obstacles to its implementation could be overcome with the necessary political will.

Asked if there had been discussions concerning a draft text by the five permanent members of the Council on the issue of non-proliferation, Mr. Muñoz responded that he had only heard that the permanent five had discussed the matter, but it was not on the Council’s agenda.  If there were an initiative by any Council member to include it, it would be included.

As to how his report on 12 January on the 1267 Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee would differ from previous reports, he said that it would be a richer report than those presented earlier and include a host of issues, not only the trips he had undertaken as Chairman of that Committee, but also the reports presented by the Member States, as well as the evaluation by the monitoring group of the implementation of the sanctions by Member States.  It would be necessary to emphasize those areas where progress was lacking, which would be the thrust of the resolution planned on the subject for the 16th.

Speaking in his national capacity, he added that he would like to see a stronger resolution with more “teeth”, and not merely a rhetorical text.  Terrorism by Al Qaeda and the Taliban continued to be a menace not only in Afghanistan, but in other parts of the world.

Responding to a comment that most United Nations peacekeeping missions were in Africa, he said that there were important crises in Africa that merited the attention of the Council and the sending of troops.  The number of missions in African reflected the reality of the situation on the continent.

Asked if he had received a letter from Syria pertaining to settlement activity, he replied that he had not received such a letter, nor had he been contacted on that issue.

Pointing out that Mexico was out and Brazil was in, a correspondent asked whether that would make a difference in terms of the Latin American block in the Council.  Mr. Muñoz replied that it would not make any difference, describing the relationship between Brazil and Chile as extremely strong.  There were ongoing bilateral consultations between the two missions in New York and a meeting had been held in Brasilia at the level of Deputy Foreign Minister to discuss the Security Council’s work programme.

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