UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's UN
Ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, announced his candidacy for the
top United Nations post on Tuesday, becoming the fifth candidate and the first
Muslim to enter the race to succeed Secretary-General Kofi Annan whose term ends
at the end of this year.
The Jordanian government sent a letter to the
president of the UN Security Council, formally submitting Zeid's candidacy. A
letter was also sent to General Assembly President Jan Eliasson.
Born in Amman, and educated in Jordan, Britain and
the United States, Zeid, 42, has held the post as Jordan's permanent
representative to the United Nation since August 2000.
He served as a UN peacekeeper in the former
Yugoslavia from February 1994 to February 1996. A biographical note released by
the Jordanian mission to the United Nations says he has "extensive" knowledge of
UN peacekeeping affairs after "having worked intimately with peacekeeping issues
for over the past decade."
An expert in the field of international justice, he
played a central role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court
and was elected the first president of its governing body in September 2000.
Zeid currently chairs the Consultative Committee for the United Nations
Development Fund for Women.
In a statement on his vision for the future of the
world body, Zeid called for "a genuine renewal to make it a 21st century agent
for change and progress."
"The UN's recent centrality to resolving conflicts
and alleviating suffering around the world should serve - not as cause for
complacency - but as a spur to deeper change as its looks to new leadership at
the end of this year," said the statement.
The UN Security Council had been accused of inaction
in face of a month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon which
run through mid-July to mid-August. The council passed resolution 1701 on Aug.
11 to seek an end to the 34-day conflict.
The other four announced candidates so far are all
Asians, including Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, former UN
disarmament chief and government adviser Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, South
Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and UN Undersecretary-General for
Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor, an Indian.
The last Asian to hold the UN post was U Thant of
Myanmar, who served in 1961-71. It widely expected that the next UN
secretary-general should come from Asia as part of a traditional rotation among
regions. Jordan is a member of the Asian group at the United Nations.
Annan, a Ghanaian who has held the position since
1997, has said that most nations believe his successor should come from Asia.
Annan is the seventh secretary-general in the 61-year-history of the United
Nations.
The UN Charter stipulates that the secretary-general
is appointed "by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security
Council." To win final approval, a candidate must receive nine votes of the 15
council members, including every vote of the veto-wielding five permanent
members, namely China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.
The council held a straw poll for the next
secretary-general in late July, in which the members were asked whether they
encouraged, discouraged or had no opinion about the four candidates at the time.
Ban topped the poll with 12 encouragements, compared with 10 for Shashi Tharoor
who came second. Enditem
