The Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East constitute an important part of the globe with a glorious history and rich culture. The Arabic language and many common traits of their culture give the people a common identity. The countries are also members of an international body, the Arab League. Collectively the Arab countries command huge natural resources and meet the bulk of worlds petroleum demand.

The Arab countries have many common political, economic and cultural interests which unites them as a people despite their being citizens of different nation states. Viewed in this background, Saudi Arabia’s recent demand for a permanent seat for Arabs at the United Nations Security Council deserves serious consideration.

Incidentally, members of the United Nations have shown awareness about the importance of what may be called the Arab world and have ensured that at least one of the 10 elected members of the Security Council comes from one of the Arab countries. But at a time when proposals to increase the number of permanent members of the council are being mooted, the plea for a permanent member from the Arab states has a lot of justification.

Another fact which underlines the importance of the region for world peace and strengthens its demand for permanent representation in the Security Council is that the region has suffered more wars than any other part of the world in the post-world war era , most of them arising out of the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict .Even today the crisis and civil war in Syria has caused heavy casualties and displaced millions of people from their homes and compelled them to seek shelter in the neighboring countries, but the UN has failed to stop the bloodshed and restore peace in that country.

As pointed out by the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, the Security Council is crippled by the veto power of the permanent members has failed to tackle the Middle East issues. It rejected to accept the traditional Arab seat in the Council in protest against the body’s failure to end the war in Syria. The ambassador, Abdallah al-Muallimi, also referred to the occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories and pointed out that the Council had failed to address the situation in the Palestinian and Arab occupied territories which was under consideration by it for more than six decades.

Taking exception to the exercise of the veto on the Syrian issue, the ambassador said, “the Syrian crisis continues, with a regime bent on suppressing the will of its people by brutal force, killing and displacing millions of people under the watch and sight of a council paralyzed by the abuse of the veto system”.

The ambassador called for abandoning the veto system or restricting its use and expanding the membership of the council.

The world body should give a serious consideration to the proposals to give the Arab countries a permanent representation at the council and to either abolish or restrict the use of veto powers by the permanent members of the Security Council so that it can function as an effective body for maintenance of world peace and resolution of international disputes.

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