Mustafa Çağlayan
September 08, 2015•Update: September 08, 2015
By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
The spokesman for the UN chief has admitted that the political divisions in the Security Council have hurt UN's capabilities to end the Syrian civil war.
The structure of the 15-member Council is facing criticism for the overriding influence of the permanent members, whose national interests regularly trumps action in humanitarian crises.
"Every time there is a veto on any issue, I think it is a challenge for the United Nations. Because it underscores a lack of unity within the Security Council", Stephane Dujarric said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.
"On the political front of so many of the peace and security issues we deal, whether in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, we need the unity of the Security Council. We need them to speak with one voice. Because that sends a very strong message to the parties on the ground," he added.
Dujarric acknowledged that there have recently been some discussions within the Council on a proposal not to block resolutions when action is required to halt mass atrocities.
"We hope they find those discussions fruitful and they find a way to move forward. Obviously the veto needs to be used with a great amount of responsibility", he said.
The French proposal to not block resolutions gained traction after Russia and China vetoed a resolution last year that would have referred the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court.
Last week, Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin dismissed the proposal as "populist" and said Russia would oppose it.
Dujarric said allowing the Syrian civil war to continue for another year was a great failure of the international community in the past year.
Although UN chief Ban Ki-moon and other UN agencies did a strong job on the humanitarian field, this was just a "band aid", he said.
"That’s not the solution. The solution is ensuring that all those within Syria and all the countries that have an influence over those parties in Syria all agree and sit around the table and come up with a political solution ... Secretary-General cannot do it alone. He needs the full backing of the Security Council. Over the last four years of the conflict in Syria, we have seen a division, a political division in the Security Council."
The Syrian civil war has resulted in the deaths of at least 250,000 victims and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people, according to the UN.
Four Security Council draft resolutions directly addressing the conflict have been blocked by Russia and China, which, along with Iran, have been the principle international allies of Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad.
In August, Assad said he was confident his government would have the continuing support of Moscow.
Dujarric said an issue on which the United Nations was very successful in the past year was the fight against Ebola.
"We were able to save a lot of people and also just as important ensure that Ebola did not spread beyond the three most impacted countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. So I want to say that this is a very good success story," he said.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared Liberia free of the Ebola virus, but the other two countries continue to fight the disease.
"We could have done more. We could have done it earlier", Dujarric said. "Still too many people died, there were too many victims. And there is going to be a lot of rebuilding work."
More than 28,000 people have been infected with Ebola in the region and more than 11,000 deaths have been reported, according to the UN.
The 2014 outbreak was the first large-scale Ebola outbreak to demonstrate the potential for the virus to spread beyond Africa – a risk raised by the ease and high rate of international travel.
