News Alert: UNSC members set to take GERD vote this afternoon
Addis Abeba, June 25/2020 – The 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) are set to take a vote this afternoon on whether to hold an open virtual meeting on matters concerning the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Addis Standard has learnt.
If the member states reach a consensus, the meeting will take place on Friday June 26. However, it’s unlikely that member states reach at a consensus since elected members South Africa and Niger from Africa as well as St. Vincent and Grenadines of Southern Caribbean nation have opposed the idea of a meeting, which leaves the Council divided.
A foreign diplomat who is observing the matter and who spoke to Addis Standard expressed his concerns at Washington’s insistence – by siding with Egypt – to force the Council into what amounts to a “procedural vote,” which he said in the COVID-19 era was “unprecedented.”
The UN Security Council hasn’t taken any ‘procedural vote’, a rare mechanism through which the Council resolves differences, to break a deadlock among its 15 members since at least mid-March 2020. The UNSC member states agreed to do away with ‘procedural vote’ since they no longer meet in the Chamber because of COVID-19 restrictions. AS
