Japan Wins Seat at UN Security Council; Iran Fails

Reviewed by Takahiro MIYAO

Article:
Japan Wins Seat at UN Security Council; Iran Fails
AFP (10/18/2008)
http://afp.google.com/article/
ALeqM5h8D7f4cVwcYz_TdRiy7R1OG7lGYQ

Comments:

As reported in the AFP article (see the link above), Japan has just been elected to a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council with 158 votes against 32 for Iran. This one-sided result was widely expected, because Iran is suspected to be developing nuclear weapons and, therefore, is under UN sanctions for refusing to comply with Security Council demands to stop nuclear-related activities. There are two non-permanent seats for Asia on the 15 member Security Council, where Indonesia's term is ending and Vietnam will stay on for another year.

However, it was unfortunate that Japan had to face and defeat Iran in its bid for a seat for the Asian region. In a sense, Japan would rather be playing the role of a mediator to bridge a gap between Iran and Western nations regarding energy and nuclear policies, although it is needless to say that Japan should be tough on any possible development of nuclear weapons, whether by Iran or North Korea.

In any event, Japan is urged to act swiftly and wisely as a member of the Security Council for 2009-10, as two years may be too short to deal with the serious condition of the world regarding nuclear development and financial problems, which could lead to a collapse of the present world order.

Acknowledgment:
This review is adopted from the following blog (with its Japanese translation):
http://glocom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-date-20081019.html