China's permanent representative to the United Nations criticizes US for being stubborn on South Sudan sanctions
Xinhua News Agency, United Nations, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, made an explanatory statement when the Security Council voted on the draft resolution on the extension of the sanctions authorization on South Sudan on the 26th, pointing out that because of the stubbornness of the United States, China had to abstain in the voting.
Zhang Jun said that the Security Council's sanctions against South Sudan are the most controversial of all Security Council sanctions mechanisms, because South Sudan is the youngest member of the United Nations. Sanctions and pressure; because the African Union and the East African Intergovernmental Development Organization have always opposed the Security Council's sanctions against South Sudan; because the settlement of the South Sudan issue is ultimately through political means, sanctions and pressure in many cases not only fail to work, but restrict South Sudan Governments build security capabilities to protect civilians.
Zhang Jun said that it is precisely because of the above reasons that China has always been cautious about the Security Council's sanctions against South Sudan, and has repeatedly abstained from voting on the resolution on extending the sanctions.Last year, the Security Council set a benchmark for adjusting sanctions against South Sudan.According to the UN Secretary-General's report, South Sudan has made progress in implementing the benchmarks.At the same time, taking into account the persistent paranoia of some members of the Security Council on sanctions, China and other members of the Security Council believe that the Security Council should take measures to gradually relax the sanctions mechanism against South Sudan.The Chinese side has put forward constructive amendments accordingly.Other members of the Council have proposed similar amendments.If these measures are adopted, not only will they not exacerbate the conflict in South Sudan, on the contrary, they will help to actively respond to the concerns of the African Union, enhance the security capacity building in South Sudan, and encourage the South Sudanese government to take more substantial steps in implementing the adjustment of sanctions benchmarks.
Zhang Jun said that the responsibility of the writing country is to help the Security Council form a text that builds the greatest possible consensus, rather than stubbornly insisting on the writing country's own opinions in the text.Regrettably, the writing country failed to fulfill this responsibility, did not carefully listen to and adopt reasonable opinions, failed to demonstrate the fairness and inclusiveness it should have as the writing country, and failed to fully accommodate the concerns of all parties, including all members of the Security Council, when adjusting the text. Several members, including African members, broke the silent procedure set by the US for the draft resolution.However, the US still forcibly put the unconsensus text to a vote.
The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2633 on the 26th, extending the arms embargo and targeted sanctions against South Sudan for one year until May 31, 2023.
