Arab League nations will meet in Riyadh on April 15 to work to prevent Israel from gaining a seat on the U.N. Security Council, Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said in a statement on Tuesday.
The summit was originally slated for the end of March, the usual date for the Arab League's annual meeting, but Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Egypt and league delegate Ahmed Qattan said the timing needed to change to accommodate Egypt's March 26-28 presidential elections.
The Security Council is considered the U.N.'s most powerful body, charged with maintaining international peace and security, as well as accepting new members to the United Nations.
The Security Council consists of 15 members, five of whom – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – are permanent members and have veto power over its resolutions. Ten rotating members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms based on regions: five from African and Asian countries; one from Eastern European countries; two from Latin American and Caribbean countries; and two from Western European and other countries – the bloc to which Israel belongs.
The Security Council presidency rotates monthly among its members.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has never sat on the Security Council. Only 66 other countries in the U.N., many of them small island states, have not held a Security Council seat.
Winning a Security Council seat requires a two-thirds majority in the 193-nation General Assembly. Candidates are proposed by the five regional groups but election to the council is voted on by the full assembly.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said last year that he had discussed the issue with U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and he believed the U.S. would "actively support" Israel's candidacy ahead of the 2019 rotation.
Last year's annual Arab League summit was held in Jordan on March 29, with the participation of the 22 member states except for Syria, whose membership has been suspended since the advent of the Syrian war in 2011.
