Pedro Comissário Afonso, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique to the United Nation and President of the Security Council for the month of March, briefs reporters on the programme of work for the month of the Security Council at UN world headquarters in New York Mar. 01,  2023. (Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

By  Gary  Raynaldo     –   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED  NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK  –    MOZAMBIQUE  officially took over as President of the UN Security Council Wednesday   for the month of March  with a focus on women, peace and security.   Ambassador Pedro Comissário Afonso, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique to the UN and President of the Security Council for the month of March laid out the Council’s programme of work for the month during a press briefing with reporters at UN headquarters in New York.  Mozambique follows Malta which held the rotating  presidency the month of February 2023. The Security Council is a body of 15 members, five of which are permanent and have veto power: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. Last year,  the Republic of  Mozambique  won a seat on the powerful UN Security Council for 2022/23.  It is Mozambique’s first time on the Security Council. Mozambique is a country located on the eastern coast of Southern Africa.

Pedro Comissário Afonso (left), Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique to the United Nations, stands next to the flag of his country Jan. 3, 2023. (Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

(Photo by Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times ) Mozambique  Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Verónica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo at press briefing  outside the UN General Assembly hall after Mozambique elected to Security Council at UN world headquarters in New York  June 9, 2022. 

Mozambique is expected to organise two signature events this month. One will be an open debate on “Women, Peace and Security: Towards the 25th Anniversary of Resolution 1325”. The meeting will be chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, Verónica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo. High-level representatives from UN Women, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the AU are expected to brief. A civil society representative is also expected to brief. The second signature event will be a high-level debate on “Countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism conducive to terrorism by strengthening cooperation between the UN and regional organisations and mechanisms”.  President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi of Mozambique is expected to chair the meeting.    

“Terrorism is a matter of great concern in the world today. We need to pull together our efforts in order to combat and if possible defeat and eradicate terrorists.”

-Mozambique Ambassador to UN Pedro Comissário Afonso

Several African Issues On Security Council Agenda in March

African issues are on the programme of work the month of March, include:

• “Silencing the Guns in Africa”, an open debate on the relationship between this initiative and  development

• South Sudan, meeting on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and renewal of the UNMISS mandate;
• Sudan, meeting on the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), and briefing by Ghana, the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee

• Somalia, meeting on the implementation of the Somalia Transition Plan (STP).

There Should Be Two-State Solution to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict:  Mozambique Ambassador

The West Bank is currently in the grip of deadly violence as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages out of control. Israeli troops on last killed 11 Palestinians,  and four civilians, and wounded more than 100 people during a raid on a city in the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, a group of Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage hours after a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israeli settlers in Hawara, the West Bank.  The settlers violence resulted in the killing of one Palestinian, injuring of several hundreds of Palestinians and burning of houses and shops, causing the destruction of Palestinian property.   When a reporter asked the Mozambique ambassador’s opinion on this,  he said he favors a two-state solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Our position as far as the Palestinian situation is concerned is that there should be two states: a state of Palestine and a state of Israel. Two states living in peace and harmony side by side. This is our principle position that we have been defending since our independence and even now in the Security Council.”

-Mozambique Ambassador to UN  Pedro Comissário Afonso

Middle East issues on the programme include:

• Syria, monthly meetings on the political and humanitarian situations and on the chemical weapons track
• Yemen, monthly meeting on developments
• “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, monthly meeting on developments
• Lebanon, meeting on the implementation of resolution 1701
• Golan, meeting on the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 2020,  Ambassador  Afonso was his country’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation since February 2020, prior to which he served as Director of the Central Bureau for the Prevention and Combat against Drugs between February 2019 and January 2020.

Between 2012 and 2018, he was Mozambique’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.  He served concurrently as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation.  From 2006 to 2012, he was Ambassador to the Nordic countries, based in Stockholm.