Jordan elected to UN Security Council as a Non-Permanent Member

UN General Assembly elected Jordan to the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member on 6 December 2013 to replace Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia was elected in October 2013 to the Security Council as a non permanent member but it has rejected its seat in protest at the UN council's failure to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues.

With 179 members of the 193-member General Assembly voting by secret ballot, Jordan received 178 votes while Saudi Arabia got one vote.

Jordan will now join with Lithuania, Chile, Nigeria and Chad as new members of the council, replacing Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Pakistan, Morocco and Togo. The other five temporary council members that will remain next year are Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, South Korea and Rwanda.

About UN Security Council

• Article 23 of chapter V of United Nations Charter provides for the composition of United Nations Security Council.

• The council is composed of 15 members. There are 5 permanent members of Security Council and 10 non –permanent members. Five permanent members are: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

• Ten non-permanent members are elected for 2 years term by General Assembly and these members can not be immediately re-elected.

Objective of the UN Security Council

• The Objective of UNSC is to maintain peacekeeping operations, the establishments of international   sanctions and the authorization of military action.

• The powers of UNSC are exercised through United Nations Security Council resolutions.

• All Member States are obligated to comply with Council decisions. In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorize the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.