The UN Security Council wants to vote on the convening of an extremely rare emergency special session of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly on Sunday. The topic there is said to be the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When voting in the 15-member Security Council, none of the five permanent members – Russia, China, France, Great Britain, USA – has a veto right. Nine votes are required to convene the General Assembly. Diplomats assume that number will be reached and the meeting will be convened for Monday.
Since 1950 there have only been ten such emergency special sessions. Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning its invasion of Ukraine on Friday. Eleven members approved the resolution, with China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining.
UN chief António Guterres has meanwhile postponed another trip. The Secretary-General will not fly to Geneva as planned for a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday “due to the worsening situation in Ukraine”, the United Nations announced on Saturday. Guterres had already canceled a trip to Africa earlier in the week.