Veto power in Security Council must be scrapped, Irans leader says. 23 September 2010 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today pinned the United Nations’ “ineptitude” on what he called its “unjust structure,” urging that the veto power of the Security Council’s five permanent members be abolished. Decisions on substantive matters in the Council require the vote of nine of the body’s 15 members, including the concurring votes of the permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. “Major power is monopolized in the Security Council due to the veto privilege, and the main pillar of the Organization, namely the General Assembly, is marginalized,” Mr.
Ahmadinejad said. Speaking on the first day of the Assembly’s annual high-level segment, he said that at least one of the five permanent members of the Council has been party to disputes in recent decades. “The veto advantage grants impunity to aggression and occupation. Mr. UN veto power 'satanic tool' - JPost - Iranian Threat - News. Facing the threat of new UN sanctions, Iran's president said Monday the veto power held by the US and other permanent Security Council members is a "satanic tool. " Washington and its allies have been pressing for a fourth round of UN penalties on Iran for its refusal to halt a key part of its nuclear program that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
Iran says it only wants the technology for producing nuclear power. In a revelation likely to add to their suspicions, however, a former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, was quoted as telling a newspaper that Iran obtained its first centrifuge from Pakistan in 1986. It was Iran's first public confirmation of a clandestine transfer of nuclear technology specifically from Pakistan, which itself had already acknowledged the nuclear sales. Centrifuges, which purify uranium gas, are the central component of a process that can make fuel for power plants or — at higher levels of processing — weapons. U.S. Uses UN Veto Power More Than Others. See Also: 30 Years Of U.S. UN Vetoes. By DEBORAH HASTINGS AP National Writer March 10, 2003 UNITED NATIONS -- France last cast a lone veto in 1976, over a resolution to recognize the tiny island of Mayotte as part of the newly independent state of Comoros.
For the United States, it was three months ago, over a resolution condemning violence in the Middle East, specifically the killing of U.N. employees by Israeli soldiers and the destruction of a U.N. warehouse filled with food for needy Palestinians. The power to veto, held by an exclusive five-member club of the Security Council, allows the world's most powerful nations to shape international peace and security. But in the crisis over Iraq, France says it will veto current war plans, even if the European nation must go it alone, and even with U.S. leaders breathing down the necks of tired and bickering council members. That power, diplomats say, can also provide a bully pulpit for rewarding friends and punishing enemies. United Nations Security Council. One of the six principal organs of the UN, charged with the maintenance of international security The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN)[2] and is charged with ensuring international peace and security,[3] recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly,[4] and approving any changes to the UN Charter.[5] Its powers include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action.
The UNSC is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on member states. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created after World War II to address the failings of the League of Nations in maintaining world peace. It held its first session on 17 January 1946 but was largely paralyzed in the following decades by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (and their allies). History[edit] Background and creation[edit] Cold War[edit] United Nations Security Council veto power. The United Nations Security Council "power of veto" refers to the veto power wielded solely by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States), enabling them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft.
The veto does not apply to procedural votes, which is significant in that the Security Council's permanent membership can vote against a "procedural" draft resolution, without necessarily blocking its adoption by the Council. The veto is exercised when any permanent member—the so-called "P5"—casts a "negative" vote on a "substantive" draft resolution. Abstention or absence from the vote by a permanent member does not prevent a draft resolution from being adopted.
Origins of the veto provision[edit] The idea of states having a veto over the actions of international organizations was not new in 1945. Article 27[edit]