UN General Assembly ready to chastise Security Council?

Arab countries are pushing a resolution in the UN General Assembly that would call for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down. Even more striking, the draft resolution would apparently "deplore" the inaction of the Security Council. Via the Christian Science Monitor: Thursday’s vote won’t just demand Mr. Assad’s departure, but will also express the ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Arab countries are pushing a resolution in the UN General Assembly that would call for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down. Even more striking, the draft resolution would apparently "deplore" the inaction of the Security Council. Via the Christian Science Monitor:

Arab countries are pushing a resolution in the UN General Assembly that would call for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to step down. Even more striking, the draft resolution would apparently "deplore" the inaction of the Security Council. Via the Christian Science Monitor:

Thursday’s vote won’t just demand Mr. Assad’s departure, but will also express the international community’s frustration with a deadlocked Security Council.

The draft resolution, written by Saudi Arabia with the support of Egypt and Bahrain, knocks the Security Council by “deploring” its inability to act on Syria. Last month permanent members Russia and China vetoed a Syria resolution for the third time over the course of the 17-month-old crisis.

Unsurprisingly, Russia opposes the resolution, which it calls "unbalanced." There are also reports that the BRICS countries will all oppose the resolution.

More interesting is what London, Washington and Paris are doing about the resolution. They are no doubt pleased with the substance, but probably not thrilled to have the General Assembly so directly passing judgment on the Council’s performance. In May, the P5 joined forces to help shoot down a draft Assembly resolution that would have called for greater Council transparency and other changes to the working methods of the powerful body. The P5 are sometimes bitterly divided on substance, but attacks on the Council as an institution tend to bring them together awfully fast.

According to this Associated Press report, the General Assembly vote is now scheduled for Friday, and the Arab sponsors are tweaking the language to ensure a broad majority. It wouldn’t be shocking if the sections criticizing the Council’s performance quietly disappeared. 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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