U.N. council reform continues

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 (UPI) -- With U.N. reform plodding along, two diplomats have been named to move change of the 15-member Security Council forward.

U.N. General Assembly President Sheikha Haya al-Khalifa said in a letter sent to the world organization's 192 member states Tuesday she appointed ambassadors Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein and Chile's Heraldo Munoz to take on the formidable task and report back to her by the end of June.

Their assignment is to sound out representatives of the 190 other nations to see what they want and what they might settle on.

The contentious issue of council reform for a time last year threatened to derail U.N. reform until it was sidetracked to allow easier reforms to move ahead.

Last month Khalifa received a report from five facilitators on council reform and wants Wenaweser and Munoz to use it as the basis for their consultations.

The report found even though there is overwhelming support for such change, the countries remain so divided on the details that a transitional stage of reform may be necessary to break the deadlock.

It said a "significant number of member states tend to agree that their ideal solution may not be possible at this stage, and believe that it may be more reasonable to consider the best possible solution for now."

Problems on council reform range from expansion of membership through use of the veto to categories of membership on the panel.

--

William M. Reilly, UPI U.N. Correspondent