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Guatemala, Venezuela stuck in impasse over UN seat
AFP
UNITED NATIONS
Petroleumworld.com 10 27 06Guatemala and Venezuela failed to break their deadlock over a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in talks Thursday, their foreign ministers said.
As of Wednesday the UN General Assembly had failed in 41 votes since October 16 to reach a two-thirds consensus on who should fill the seat being vacated by Argentina on January 1.
"Guatemala informed us it was not prepared to give ground to reach a formula for consensus," the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Nicolas Maduro, said after talks with his Guatemalan counterpart, Gert Rosenthal, at Ecuador's UN mission.
Rosenthal confirmed that his country preferred to stay in the race.
"What we would like is for Venezuela to bravely withdraw its candidacy so we can assume ours. We are not prepared to do it," he told reporters.
"We are so close to getting two-thirds of the votes we aren't motivated to drop out," he added, revealing that diplomatic efforts were underway to lure votes away from Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the Guatemalan president, Oscar Berger, ratified his country's candidacy for the Security Council seat.
"Guatemala is not ceding its candidacy to any country at this moment, and has no intention to cede ground," Berger told reporters in Guatemala City when questioned about the possibility of a third candidate to resolve the dispute.
The Dominican Republic earlier Thursday announced it was ready to propose its candidacy if Guatemala agrees.
"I will say publicly here that yesterday I received a phone call from the minister of foreign affairs of Venezuela, considering the possibility of having the Dominican Republic stepping in as a consensus solution," President Leonel Fernandez said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
After numerous rounds of voting have failed to produce a winner, "it is important to have a different solution and the Dominican Republic can be available," he said.
AFP 26 1946 GMT 10 06
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