MOSCOW, September 28 (RIA Novosti) – The United States, which initiated the introduction of the United Nations Security Council "power of veto," is the nation that has been "abusing" the veto power most often, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview to Channel 5.
“The power of veto is being abused sometimes. Allegations have been made against Americans who used the power more often than others, first of all, in terms of the voting on resolutions on the Middle Eastern peace processes and the Palestinian issue," the Russian minister said.
In 2013, UN permanent Security Council member France proposed that the five veto-wielding members voluntarily refrain from using the veto power in matters that involve mass crimes. The proposal was revived at the 69th UN General Assembly in New York and backed by the participants of the meeting.
In turn, Lavrov reminded that the mechanism of UNSC veto "was proposed by the Americans, they insisted on it, in order to avoid the situations in which some decisions could be made with the infringement of the interests of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council."
Thus, "the veto is not a privilege, not a whim, it is implementation of responsibility of a permanent member of the Security Council for the performance of its obligations as, in fact, one of the guarantors of international security", Lavrov said.
Moscow actively advocated for less abuse of the veto power, the Russian minister added.
“When it comes to core issues that affect the fate of parts or the whole world, I firmly believe, there is no other way but to seek consensus among the permanent members of the Security Council,” the diplomat underlined.
The UN Security Council power of veto wielded solely by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States), enabling them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support for the draft. Russia and China has deployed its veto in recent years to block UN Security Council decisions authorizing the use of military force against the government of Syria.
