Libyan wins post of UN General Assembly president

By JOHN HEILPRIN 
June 10, 2009
Agence France Press
Original Source: 
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The next president of the U.N. General Assembly will be a Libyan politician in charge of the nation's dealings with the Africa Union.
Ali Abdessalam Treki, Libya's minister for AU affairs, won election by acclamation rather than a vote Wednesday in the General Assembly, the world's forum for debate among 192 member nations.
The one-year post rotates among nations on a regional basis.
Treki will assume the job when the assembly convenes in mid-September for its annual high-level ministerial debate attended by heads of state. He will replace Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a Roman Catholic priest and former Nicaraguan foreign minister in the 1980s during the rule of the Sandinistas.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says it was more fitting to welcome back Treki than say welcome to him since he served three times as Libya's U.N. ambassador.
Ban noted Treki's involvement at the AU in addressing one of the U.N.'s most pressing problems, the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that has claimed 300,000 lives and has raged for more than six years. And facing new problems and threats, Ban said, the Libyan's leadership will be crucial if the assembly is to respond with unified action.
Libya has been increasing its leadership role in the world. In February, the country's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya since he seized power in a coup in 1969, was elected to the one-year post as AU chairman.
The country already holds a non-permanent seat on the 15-nation Security Council, where the real power at the U.N. is concentrated. There, Libya's ambassadors have blocked U.S.-proposed remarks on Darfur and led Arab efforts that, counter to U.S. and Israeli demands, have sought to open all crossings into Gaza without authorizing border monitors or destroying tunnels Hamas has used to smuggle arms.
But Treki's new role as General Assembly persident requires him to make the goals of the international community his first priority.
France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert praised Treki's selection, and said France was happy that an African minister will be presiding in the coming year over major challenges like the global financial crisis, economic woes and climate change.
The current president's tenure has been marked by outspokenness and controversy stemming from his openly leftist views.
D'Escoto, who once aligned himself with Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union, often has railed against the United States and the U.N.'s domination by its five permanent Security Council members: the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France.
At his sermon-like press conferences, often rambling and accusatory, he has said the U.S. demonizes Iran's president and criticized the International Criminal Court for issuing an arrest warrant for Sudan's leader on war crimes charges in Darfur. He also has compared the conditions that Israel imposes on the Palestinians to those of apartheid.
D'Escoto said Wednesday that Treki will lead with the same passion and determination that have inspired by presidency.