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Saudi Arabia has written to the UN chief to inform him about its decision not to take up a Security Council seat it won, clearing the way for Jordan to claim the berth.
"I can confirm that the Secretary-General has received a letter from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia concerning its Security Council seat. The matter is now one for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Security Council and the Member States to consider," Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said in a statement here.
Saudi Arabia's UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Moualimi said in the letter that his country "will regrettably not be in a position to assume its seat in the Security Council to which it was elected."
In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia had announced within hours of it being elected to the 15-nation UNSC on October 17 as a non-permanent member that it was rejecting the seat.
It said the Security Council had failed to end the Syrian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
The Saudi government had also said that the Council's deadlock over Syria was "irrefutable evidence and proof of the inability of the Security Council to carry out its duties and responsibilities."
UN diplomats have said that the seat would now be taken up by Jordan.
A new election will have to be held in the General Assembly to select an alternative country that will begin its new term at the Council on January 1.
Saudi Arabia yesterday won an election to the Geneva- based UN Human Rights Council along with 13 other nations including China, Cuba and Russia.
A rights group indicated that Jordan had pulled out from the human rights council election as part of a deal to obtain the Security Council seat itself.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said it is "appalling" that seats on the world's top human rights body are being "traded like merchandise, treated as trinkets by non-democracies".
"We are witnessing backroom deals of the most cynical kind, which show contempt for the official UN membership criteria requiring that candidates be elected on the basis of their record in promoting and protecting human rights," Neuer said.
