Libya's African rep to chair UN assembly: diplomat

March 3, 2009
AFP
Original Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYRYIoaEx-MGEtDTQajY8QDzubxA
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Veteran Libyan diplomat Ali Triki is set to be the next president of the UN General Assembly, Libya's charge d'affaires to the international body Ibrahim Dabbashi said Tuesday.
Triki will preside over the General Assembly during its 64th session and I think he will be elected president sometime in the middle of June, said Dabbashi at a press briefing.
His candidature has been endorsed at the highest level in the African Union, so there is a consensus on that, he said of Triki, who serves as Libya's African Affairs minister.
The United Nations General Assembly elects a chairman annually, and the position rotates between five geographic groups. This year it switches from Latin America to Africa.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is currently the chairman of the 53-nation bloc African Union, a position he was elected to earlier this month.
If confirmed, Triki would take over in September from Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a Nicaraguan priest who was a former foreign minister of the Sandinista government.
Since taking office D'Escoto has attracted strong criticism from the United States and Israel for his positions on Middle East issues, notably during the crisis in Gaza at the start of the year.
On assuming the General Assembly presidency last year, he launched a veiled but scathing attack on the United States, saying serious breaches of the peace and threats to international peace and security are being perpetrated by some members of the Security Council that seem unable to break what appears like an addiction to war.