DHAKA: The UN General Assembly elected Jordan to the Security Council on Friday to replace Saudi Arabia, which had rejected the seat in an unprecedented act to protest the council’s failure to end the Syrian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

Arab countries chose Jordan as a replacement, and Asian nations endorsed it to take the traditional Arab seat on the UN’s most powerful body. It received 178 ‘yes’ votes in the election.

Saudi Arabia got one vote, and four countries in the 193-member world body abstained.

The 10 other countries were either absent or unable to vote because of unpaid dues, gulfnews.com publishes this report on Saturday.

Jordan’s foreign minister Nasser Judeh said the country was ‘extremely honoured’ and ‘humbled’ by the near consensus support from the international community, which recognised ‘Jordan’s relentless efforts in the pursuit of peace and security, the very principles that the Security Council is mandated to preserve’.

Saudi Arabia stunned the diplomatic world by rejecting the Security Council seat less than 24 hours after it was elected on October 17.

BDST: 1723 HRS, DEC 07, 2013