Azernews.Az

The UN Security Council held its first meeting in 2012 on Wednesday that was attended by Azerbaijan.

UNSC members discussed the program of activities and other issues at the closed-door meeting, the UNSC website reported.

Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo, which were elected to the organization for 2012-2013 during the elections held at the UN General Assembly in October 2011, assumed their mandates as non-permanent members of the UN council on January 1. The five countries replaced Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Gabon, Lebanon and Nigeria, whose two-year term expired on December 31, 2011.

Azerbaijan's ambassador to the UN Agshin Mehdiyev told Russia’s state news agency ITAR-TASS that at the Security Council his country "plans to be actively involved in all processes taking place there, in developing and making decisions, and in committees and working groups".

On the developments in Syria, Mehdiyev said Baku "has a fairly clear vision" of the way the issue should be handled.

"First, we support the League of Arab States’ actions in this direction," he said, stressing that any decision taken in this regard should not result in "further escalation of violence".

Mehdiyev said Azerbaijan shares the view that both sides should refrain from any actions that could lead to a further escalation of tension. At the same time, he said, Baku believes any kind of outside interference in Syrian affairs presently is out of the question.

"It is necessary to enable people to sort out their issues themselves, while avoiding any escalation of tension," he added.

Commenting on possible submission of a draft resolution with the General Assembly's recommendation to the UN Security Council to admit Palestine to the UN, Mehdiyev stressed that Azerbaijan has long recognized the Palestinian state, and the Palestinian embassy is operating in Baku. "I think we will adhere to that [stance]," he said.

Stressing that Azerbaijan is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Non-Aligned Movement, Mehdiyev pointed out that his country has "its own position on many issues of the UNSC agenda".

"If our position coincides with those of other countries at some point, this would be great. If not, then we have our principles and we are not going to back down from them," he said.

Mehdiyev said Baku will continue to push for the enforcement of the UNSC resolutions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh -- which urge an unconditional pullout of Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories occupied since the 1990s war. He expressed hope that "Azerbaijan's increased authority in the international arena and its membership in the Security Council can play a positive role in resolving the conflict".

Mehdiyev also underlined his country's very close relations with Russia in the UN "at all levels".

"Even if we do have some issues on which our positions do not fully overlap, there are very few of them," Mehdiyev said.

"We will continue to work closely with Russia within the Security Council and beyond it," he added.