Pakistan has called for improving communications between the UN Security Council's 'permanent five' (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States), non-permanent members and the general membership during serious crises so as to make the 15-member body more effective.
Speaking in the General Assembly's debate on the report of the Security Council, Ambassador Masood Khan said the goal of better communications between various groups of countries could be achieved through the office of the Council president, which rotates on a monthly basis alphabetically among the Council members.
Discussing the performance of the council in the past year, the Pakistani envoy said on issues unrelated to the Middle East, its results ranged from good to outstanding.
He said new paradigms had emerged from Council resolutions on peacekeeping, namely, a region-wide approach, such as in the Sahel and the Great Lakes Region; robust peacekeeping manifested by the induction of an intervention brigade in MONUSCO (United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the DR Congo); deployment of unmanned aerial systems; and the Council's growing co-operation with regional and sub-regional organisations, especially in Africa.
Highlighting Pakistan's role as a troop contributing country, he pointed out that the Council Resolution 2086, adopted during Pakistan's presidency in January this year, gives a blueprint for handling complex crises, inducting post-conflict peace-building in the conceptual and early planning and stages of peacekeeping missions, and preventing relapse of conflicts.
On Afghanistan, he said Pakistan would welcome the United Nations' close involvement in Afghanistan as it negotiates political, security and economic transitions.
Regarding the Palestinian issue, the Pakistani ambassador said the Council plays a peripheral but a very significant role. "The Council, through its debates, keeps the spotlight on the Middle East. We sincerely hope that the negotiations between Palestine and Israel, renewed with the help of the United States, will lead to a genuine and result-oriented peace process."
About the situation in Syria, Masood Khan observed that the Council has made swift movement in launching a process for securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons. "We hope that the new-found goodwill between countries with influence in the region and the successful collaboration on the chemical weapons issue would pave the way for the Geneva-II Conference and enable it catalyse a political solution."