During the last few days much has been written in the Arab press about Saudi Arabia's turning down the UN Security Council seat to which it had been elected.

At the outset, I am not going to render a judgment on the Saudi decision, but I seek to give a short background on the subject of Arab representation on the UN Security Council.

There was a time when Arab states would compete to have the Arab group support the candidacy of a member state of the Arab League. At that time, I happened to be representing the Arab League at the UN, and therefore to ensure a continuous representation of an Arab representative at the Security Council, I proposed to the Arab group a formula which was accepted — namely, a rotation among Arab states, one from the Arab States from Africa for two years, and the other from Asian Arab states for the next two years.

This formula ensured a continued Arab presence among the nonpermanent members of the Security Council. The assessment of the Arab group at that time — and I think it remains —was that Arab membership on the Security Council, albeit on a nonpermanent status, is an essential priority to defend Arab interest and causes, especially Palestinian rights and other issues of major concern for the Arab League and the Arab world. To the Arab group at the UN, the advantages were self-evident.