Jordan Times
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Judeh says Qatar
broke from Arab ranks
AMMAN (JT) — The government on Monday said Qatar broke from Arab ranks by voting
against Jordan’s candidate to succeed UN chief Kofi Annan.
“What concerns more in Jordan is not the offensive act against us, but [Qatar’s]
lack of commitment to a unanimous Arab League decision to nominate Prince Zeid
for the post,” Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh told reporters yesterday at
a weekly press briefing, which was attended by Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit (see
report on page 3).
Following a September Arab League meeting in Cairo, foreign ministers urged Arab
representatives at the UN to support the nomination of Prince Zeid.
According to Judeh, Qatar spoke at the meeting of a “moral commitment” to
another candidate.
“But this candidate was not the South Korean [Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon],”
Judeh said. He did not elaborate.
On Saturday, a senior Jordanian official told Agence France-Presse that Qatar’s
envoy to the United Nations broke ranks with a unanimous Arab stand in
Thursday’s straw poll to back Ban to succeed Annan.
“The Qatari representative not only broke with the unanimous Arab position, he
even campaigned for the South Korean candidate.”
After Sri Lanka’s Jayantha Dhanapala announced his withdrawal on Saturday, six
candidates remain in the race to succeed Annan, with Ban seen as the
front-runner.
The others are India’s Shashi Tharoor, Annan’s undersecretary general for
communications, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Surakiart Sathirathai, a
deputy prime minister of the ousted Thai regime, and former Afghan finance
minister Ashraf Ghani.