At the invitation of the Dispute Resolution Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran participated in a round table discussion on 28^th  May 2016, on the occasion of the visit of the President of the General Assembly to Cairo. The participants included Mr. Amr Moussa, Dr. Mustafa Al-Feki and Ambassador Hisham Badr, as well as a number of ambassadors accredited to Egypt and a number of intellectuals.

At the outset, Ambassador Hisham Badr talked about Egypt’s role in the United Nations, especially after its membership in the Security Council. Then, Mr. Mogens Lykettoft, President of the General Assembly, spoke of the “70^th session of the General Assembly” and the most important United Nations’ priorities, especially after the adoption of the sustainable development agenda, which will continue until 2030, and the organization of hearings for candidates for the post of Secretary-General.

In the intervention of Ambassador Dr. Mustafa Al-Feki, he said that the current composition of the Security Council, with the presence of permanent members of each of them with veto power, can not reform the United Nations.

Ambassador Mounir Zahran’s intervention refered to the Jont Inspection Unit report prepared by JIU in 2009 (JIU / REP / 2008-2009) calling for activating the role of the General Assembly in the selection of the Secretary-General and which was adopted by the General Assembly only after 6 years in September 2015.He explained that after the end of the hearings in the General Assembly with the candidates for the post, it was important to the President of the General Assembly to prepare a report to the President of the Security Council on the results and recommendations of Member States for the candidates, taking into account the provisions of Article 27 of the Charter (the role of the Security Council) and Article 97 (on the Secretary-General).However, the President of the General Assembly apologized for doing so under the pretext that General Assembly resolution 69/1007 did not provide for the preparation of such a report.

Ambassador Zahran also pointed out that members of the Secretariat and some Member States had violated the provisions of Article 100 of the Charter, which prohibits the Secretary-General and members of the Secretariat from receiving instructions from Member States.

In the comments, Mr. Amr Moussa said that the first priority is for the United Nations to focus on poverty and problems of underdevelopment, terrorism, etc. Commenting on the apology of the President of the General Assembly for issuing a report on the deliberations of the General Assembly on the results of the hearings for candidates for the post of Secretary-General, Mr. Amr Moussa stated that the report should be prepared by the President of the General Assembly after consultation with the coordinators of the geographical groups even if the resolution of the General Assembly doesn’t require this, unless stating other procedures.