First Committee of the GA achieves hard consensus on press release about bomb attack by rebels in Idlib, Syria
General lack of ability to compromise and promote mutual understanding hints and future difficulties in approving the upcoming resolution on cluster munitions without taking a vote
Al-Jazeera
After receiving knowledge of an upcoming cluster bomb attack by rebels in Idlib, Syria, representatives at the Disarmament and Security Committee discussed the wording of the necessary press release on the situation.
The process was laden with disagreement, raised voices, and attempts to include determinate statements in spite of protests from other representations. At the end of the informal-informal debate procedure, the delegations were nearly unable to agree upon the representative who would speak on behalf of the First Committee. After pressure from the Bureau, the chosen spokespersons were the Syrian, Russian and Argentinian representatives — the latter with a position on the topic diametrically opposed to the formers’. During the subsequent press conference, this discrepancy was made clear by Argentina’s firm divergence to Syrian and Russian claim of the right to produce, transfer and employ cluster weapons.
As the First Committee expects to take action on the resolution for the present topic by the end of the day, questions arise whether the text will be specific enough to address the issue in a comprehensive, satisfactory manner, all the while tailored to avoid dissent from any of the 193 UN members states. In a grim yet expected turn of events, the discussion points to another recorded vote, in which states not parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions will abstain or vote against the approval of the document, hindering the universality of the commitments it is to establish.
