Italy on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on four countries seeking permanent membership on the UN Security Council, accusing them of blackmailing members for support as it backed a rival proposal for council enlargement.
Using undiplomatic language, Italy's UN envoy Marcello Spatafora accused Brazil, Germany, India and Japan "of blackmailing some sectors of the (UN) membership".
He said the so-called G4 were "resorting to financial leverage and to financial pressures in order to induce a government to align, or not to align, itself with a certain position, or to co-sponsor or vote in favoUr of a certain draft.
"Enough is enough," he noted. "We have a moral obligation not to allow a reform of the Security Council to be decided in this unhealthy and poisoned environment."
The G4 blueprint, which is backed by more than 30 countries, including France and Britain, calls for boosting Council membership from 15 members to 25, with six new permanent seats without veto power --- one each for Brazil, Germany, India and Japan and two for the African region, and four non-permanent seats.
"The G4 model is structured in such a way as to benefit just six happy few, at the detriment of all the other 180 member states, and with a tremendous divisive impact on the membership," the Italian envoy said.
{{/usCountry}}"The G4 model is structured in such a way as to benefit just six happy few, at the detriment of all the other 180 member states, and with a tremendous divisive impact on the membership," the Italian envoy said.
{{/usCountry}}Instead, Spatafora expressed backing for a rival draft introduced in the General Assembly by Canada on behalf of the so-called United for Consensus group.
That draft would enlarge the council to 25 seats, with 10 new non-permanent members that would be elected for two-year terms, with the possibility of immediate re-election.
It is co-sponsored by Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, San Marino, Spain and Turkey and is a clear attempt to drain support away from the G4 text, which is facing strong opposition led by the United States.
A two-third majority is needed in the 191-member General Assembly for adoption.
Introducing the United for Consensus resolution, Canada's UN ambassador Allan Rock called it "the fairest and most democratic approach to the complex and controversial question of Security Council enlargement, while seeking the broadest possible consensus on how to proceed."
He said the draft would distribute the elected 20 non-permanent seats equitably among the geographic regions and would leave each region the decision about arrangements for both the rotation of the seats and the duration of each member state's period on the Council.
Pakistan is adamantly opposed to India securing permanent membership of the council, Brazil's bid is opposed by Argentina and several Latin American countries, Japan's by China and South Korea while Italy leads opposition to Germany's bid, diplomats said.
At present, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are the only permanent and veto-wielding members of the powerful Security Council, which also has 10 rotating non-permanent members without veto power.