"Austria, Japan, and Turkey win Security Council seats" by Neil Macfarquhar, New York Times News Service | October 18, 2008
UNITED NATIONS - Turkey, Austria, and Japan won nonpermanent seats on the UN Security Council yesterday, defeating Iceland and Iran in elections in the General Assembly.
Turkey and Austria edged out Iceland for the two rotating seats that are reserved for the mostly European bloc. Iceland had lobbied hard, although its financial crisis had raised questions about its candidacy.
Of course, the crisis doesn't raise questions about the five veto-wielding members that arm the world!
Turkey won 151 votes and Austria 133, surpassing in the first round of voting the 128 votes required for the two-thirds majority out of 192 votes cast. In the race for the single available Asian rotating seat, Japan easily defeated Iran by 158 votes to 32. They join Uganda, for Africa, and Mexico in taking up the five rotating seats on the 15-seat Security Council for the 2009 and 2010 sessions.
The Security Council vote is hotly contested. Even as members grumble about the diminished relevancy of a Security Council designed circa World War II, more nations seek to wield the influence gained by winning a seat at the council's horseshoe-shaped table.
The day of voting is one of the few days in the organization's calendar when the atmosphere in the United Nations becomes electric, and everyone shows up. Candidates must achieve a two-thirds majority among voting nations to win a seat.
It is a time of intense lobbying by candidates, and the results are not always predictable. Most ambassadors overestimate the number of votes they will receive because everyone promises to vote for them. Regions often try to create consensus around one candidate to avoid a bruising vote. Uganda has been anointed for the Africa seat this year, and Mexico for Latin America. Most diplomats had expected Japan to win the contest for the Asian seat easily.
But Iran argued that it deserved the spot, having not been on the council since 1956, while Japan has served nine times, the last time ending in 2006. Diplomats said that Iran was a long shot, noting the country's standoff with the Security Council over the nuclear issue, with three rounds of sanctions against it. Nobody wanted to repeat the experience with Rwanda in the early 1990s, when it used its seat to hinder resolutions aimed at the violence there.
Of course, the U.S stepping in and VETOING RESOLUTIONS for Iz-ray-HELL and their treatment of Palestinians is NO PROB to the Jew York Times here!!!!
Iran ran a low-key campaign. Despite the likelihood of a humiliating loss, it refused to withdraw from the ballot on the insistence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, diplomats said.
The intention to win a seat is often announced a decade in advance. It is a bit like applying for a prestigious college: You have to prove you are well rounded. At the UN, that means first showing active interest in peace and security issues. (Turkey contributes personnel for peacekeeping operations in four countries.)
So why are the BIGGEST WAR MAKERS on the planet the VETO MEMBERS of the council, 'eh? How in the world is the U.S. allowed to be sitting there?
Second, you must show you are working to improve the environment and alleviate poverty. (Iceland's literature highlighted pictures of Third World students attending its geothermal training program.)
This is SUCH SHIT!!!!
Events can create turbulence around the most carefully choreographed campaigns, however. Witness Iceland and its financial crisis. It joined the UN in 1946, but decided only in 1998 to join the rotation of the other Nordic states on the Security Council. --more--"
I didn't see any mention of USrael and their asshole ways, Jew York Times!!
What a ZIONIST PIECE of SHIT that paper turned out to be!!!!!!!!
