Al-Marsad newspaper: The United Nations General Assembly voted, Thursday, to suspend Russia’s membership in the Human Rights Council of the international organization.
This move was supported by 93 countries against 24 against, with 58 countries abstaining from voting.
Rejecting countries
Only two Arab countries were among the countries that rejected the resolution, namely Syria and Algeria. Russia, China and Iran also refused to suspend Moscow’s membership in the Human Rights Council.
The resolution was also rejected by Belarus, Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba and North Korea.
Likewise, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Laos, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zimbabwe did not agree to the resolution.
abstaining countries
The list of abstaining countries included 12 Arab countries: Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman.
Egypt’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Osama Abdel-Khalek, criticized the draft resolution as directed at politicizing the organs of the United Nations and its specialized agency.
Justifying her country’s position, Ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani said that Qatar abstained from voting because it calls for the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means and non-interference in the affairs of states.
But the abstaining votes were not taken into account within the required two-thirds majority, which is limited to only the votes in favor and against, for the resolution to pass.
The move was led by the United States after hundreds of bodies were uncovered following the withdrawal of Russian forces from Bucha and other towns near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
This decision constitutes a severe blow to Russia at the United Nations, which issued at the beginning of March a General Assembly resolution calling on Moscow to stop its war on Ukraine.