afrol News, 19 October - Libya's long term dream of winning the United Nations Security Council seat has been realised on Tuesday.

The North African country's previous attempts to grab the seat in 1995 and 2000 were blocked by the western powers, particularly the United States.

Libya joined Burkina Faso and Vietnam to win the three non-permanent seats reserved for African and Asian countries.

Croatia and Costa Rica won the East European and Latin America seats respectively.

Every year, five of the ten non-permanent seats on the 15-member council controls the power to send peacekeeping troops around the world and enforce sanctions on countries.

The non-permanent members are unlike the five permanent members [China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France who have individual veto. However, a resolution can be blocked by an alliance of seven members.

Observers said the election of Libya and Vietnam [former enemies of the United States] was a reward for their good behaviour.

Libya fell apart with western powers following the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people onboard.

The brawl led to UN sanctions on Libya, which at last surrendered the suspects and admitted responsibility to compensate victims' families.

Libya also abandoned harbouring of terrorists and destroyed its weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

Libyan Ambassador, Giadalla Ettalhi described his country's relations with the United States as normal.

On 31 December, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, Congo and Slovakia will abandon their seats. But South Africa, Indonesia, Italy, Panama, and Belgium each has a year remaining.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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