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UN Security Council Divided in Addressing Melilla Incidents

African migrants attempting to storm the border crossing with Melilla city. (AP)
African migrants attempting to storm the border crossing with Melilla city. (AP)
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UN Security Council Divided in Addressing Melilla Incidents

African migrants attempting to storm the border crossing with Melilla city. (AP)
African migrants attempting to storm the border crossing with Melilla city. (AP)

The United Nations Security Council held a closed-door session on Wednesday to discuss last week's Melilla tragedy.

At least 23 migrants died trying to cross into the Spanish enclave, amid clashes with Moroccan and Spanish security forces, and 140 security personnel were injured.

About 2,000 migrants tried to storm a border post, in the first such mass incursion since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month.

However, diplomats in New York said the 15-member Council failed to issue a unanimous statement.

The session was held upon Kenya’s request. It proposed issuing a statement to condemn the plight of African migrants on the Mediterranean coast and call on Morocco and Spain to carry out an immediate and impartial investigation into the tragedy.

But that text, which diplomats said has caused the discontent of the United States in particular, has not come to light due to the lack of consensus required for the Council to publish it.

The three members of the African Council, namely Ghana, Gabon and Kenya, were divided on the issue and failed to agree on a common position on how the Council should deal with the tragedy, a diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

For his part, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Kenya to the UN, Michael Kiboino, declined to respond to a question on his country’s draft resolution, assuring reporters that discussions on the text are ongoing.

Diplomats said the session began with a briefing by UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris, which rarely happens in the UNSC .

Following the session, Kiboino released a statement stressing that African migrants “were brutalized by security forces while trying to enter" Melilla.

He affirmed that the session was aimed at calling for treating Africans “humanely” and underlining the importance of responding to “the security needs of the Africans who fled the wars and insecurity in their countries.”

In reference to the difference in the way the Council is addressing the Ukrainian crisis, Kiboino stressed that the “Security Council and its member states are deeply concerned about the fate of refugees from other conflicts.”

“We believe that Africans fleeing war and insecurity in their own countries deserve the same respect,” he added.

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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah

Cyprus stands ready to help eliminate Syria’s remaining chemical weapons stockpiles and to support a search for people whose fate remains unknown after more than a decade of war, the top Cypriot diplomat said Saturday.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus’ offer is grounded on its own past experience both with helping rid Syria of chemical weapons 11 years ago and its own ongoing, decades-old search for hundreds of people who disappeared amid fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s and a 1974 Turkish invasion, The AP reported.

Cyprus in 2013 hosted the support base of a mission jointly run by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons.

“As a neighboring country located just 65 miles from Syria, Cyprus has a vested interest in Syria’s future. Developments there will directly impact Cyprus, particularly in terms of potential new migratory flows and the risks of terrorism and extremism,” Kombos told The AP in written replies to questions.

Kombos said there are “profound concerns” among his counterparts across the region over Syria’s future security, especially regarding a possible resurgence of extremist groups like ISIS in a fragmented and polarized society.

“This is particularly critical in light of potential social and demographic engineering disguised as “security” arrangements, which could further destabilize the country,” Kombos said.

The diplomat also pointed to the recent proliferation of narcotics production like the stimulant Captagon that is interconnected with smuggling networks involved in people and arms trafficking.

Kombos said ongoing attacks against Syria’s Kurds must stop immediately, given the role that Kurdish forces have played in combating extremist forces like the ISIS group in the past decade.

Saleh Muslim, a member of the Kurdish Presidential Council, said in an interview that the Kurds primarily seek “equality” enshrined in rights accorded to all in any democracy.

He said a future form of governance could accord autonomy to the Kurds under some kind of federal structure.

“But the important thing is to have democratic rights for all the Syrians and including the Kurdish people,” he said.

Muslim warned that the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, near Syria’s border with Türkiye, is in “very big danger” of falling into the hands of Turkish-backed forces, and accused Türkiye of trying to occupy it.

Kombos said the international community needs to ensure that the influence Türkiye is trying to exert in Syria is “not going to create an even worse situation than there already is.”

“Whatever the future landscape in Syria, it will have a direct and far-reaching impact on the region, the European Union and the broader international community,” Kombos said.