Russian Federation Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of the Russian Federation will assume the Council’s rotating presidency for the month of March, the UN Spokesperson told journalists on Friday.
This is interesting.
A vote that the U.S., Britain and France wanted to have either on Friday or on Saturday (in other words, before the Russian presidency in the Security Council) has been again postponed. The Associated Press reported that the sponsors were trying “to get more support for the resolution”. This AP report is published here . The reports about needing more support for the draft resolution refer to four non-permanent members of the Security Council who have concerns(reportedly South Africa, Libya, Indonesia and Vietnam). So far, only Libya has indicated it might actually vote against the resolution.
. Even if all of them voted no, the resolution could still be expected to pass, because it would only need the assent of 9 out of the SC’s 15 members — including all five of the Permanent Members of course (U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France).
In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors will start meeting in Vienna on Monday — the meeting should last about a week — and one of the big items on the agenda will be the latest IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program.
Perhaps diplomats are hoping that the IAEA Board of Governors will take a position on Iran’s compliance with its requests before the matter is formally put to the UN Security Council …