UNITED NATIONS \u2014 African countries along with China, Russia and Venezuela refused on Friday to back a UN resolution on curbing the spread of small arms, but it was still adopted after much wrangling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six countries abstained from the vote at the 15-member Security Council, but the resolution still garnered the required nine votes for adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angola, Chad and Nigeria argued that the resolution did not specifically include language barring arms deliveries to “non-state actors”, a term opposed by Britain, France and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such language was unacceptable to the three powers which are offering military support to opposition fighters in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British Ambassador Mathew Rycroft argued that the term “non-state actors” was “ill-defined and practically unenforceable” and would not “in any way improve the situation on the ground.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angola’s Ambassador Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins cited his country’s own “painful experience” of 27 years of war to say that they could not support a resolution with a “loophole” that did not bar arms supplies to rebel groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Non-state actors, he argued, “fuel conflicts, destabilize countries and promote policies of regime change.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resolution builds on an Australian-led text adopted in 2013 and calls on member-states to take action to prevent illegal supplies of arms to armed groups that fuel conflict worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The draft is not ideal, but the world we live in is not ideal either,” Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite told the council ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vote followed a debate held last week on the use of small arms as the Security Council grapples with conflicts in Libya, Yemen and Syria, all of which are awash in weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had called for action to step up arms control, in particular by keeping track of ammunition flows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
African countries along with China, Russia and Venezuela refused on Friday to back a UN resolution on curbing the spread of small arms, but it was still adopted after much wrangling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-27214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KFFJ57HNRJEEZMZGGPNSWO2URY","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2015\/05\/22\/african-nations-balk-at-un-small-arms-measure\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n