As the wheeling and dealing intensifies at the increasingly divided and nonfunctional United Nations Security Council, during the Arab spring era, Ethiopia says it is confident there will be enough votes favoring passage of a draft resolution currently under negotiation to sanction Eritrea’s mining sector and Diaspora tax over reports the country supports terrorism in the region.

“One thing that I can tell you is that it is a foregone conclusion the resolution will be adopted. Precisely when that might happen is very difficult to say as we are not a member of the council,” said Ambassador Dr Tekeda Alemu, Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in an exclusive interview with Capital.

Written by Gabon and co-sponsored by Nigeria, two of the three African members in the Council, the resolution would drain the Eritrean government’s key sources of revenue, as its economy heavily relies on the two percent income tax imposed on expatriates and increasingly growing mining sector.

Both Gabon and Nigeria leave the Security Council this year as their two year term expires. The two countries’ seats will be filled by recently elected Morocco and Togo. They will assume membership at the powerful group of fifteen by January. South Africa, the third African member, will stay in the Council until December 2012 but is not a cosponsor of the resolution.

The Eastern African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other proponents of the resolution against Eritrea want to see a vote before Gabon and Nigeria leave and the group’s makeup shifts. However, concerns that the resolution focused too much on economic measures that could hurt fragile humanitarian conditions in Eritrea, a country located in the Horn of Africa hit by drought and famine for decades but which has not appealed for aid, is delaying its passage, diplomats say.

Some reports said China and Russia could water down some of the terms in the resolution giving into Eritrea’s reportedly intensified lobbying of the international body.

Ethiopia’s representative to the UN says there could be the usual negotiated changes in the final content of the resolution. The ambassador however bashed other’s concerns that the measures could hurt humanitarian conditions.

“There were a number of questions raised in respect to the zero draft. The questions and concerns raised were in fact unjustified because the intent of the drafters of the resolution is not to inflict damage to the people of Eritrea. The sentiment of the resolution, which is valid, is that this Eritrean government is not committed to ensuring the development of the country and to alleviating social and economic concerns of the people of Eritrea. If it were such a government, it could have easily achieved a harmonious and understanding relationship with all countries in the region. But this government is engaged in destabilizing the whole region,” according to Dr Tekeda.

“The argument that the resources which will be denied to the government of Eritrea which is harming its people will in turn harm the people of Eritrea is not really valid,” added Dr Tekeda.

The United States, the leading Security Council member rallying behind the proposal, also says the resolution would not hurt one of Africa’s most oppressed populations.

“Any measures to be contemplated would be carefully targeted and would not go in any way to harm the people of Eritrea, who are suffering enough as it is,” Susan Rice, US Ambassador to the UN, recently told the press.

Some reports said China and Russia could demand watering down some of the terms in the resolution giving into Eritrea’s reportedly intensified lobbying at the international body. The two countries, who teamed up to double veto a proposal to condemn Syria’s ruling regime crackdown, are pressing their views in light of their distrust that Western backed sanctions are being used against regimes that are not friendly with the West, analysts say.

In the interview, Dr Tekeda says there is a strong consensus that the Security Council will have to sanction Eritrea since findings have emerged in the latest report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea which said Eritrea had committed numerous violations of the existing sanctions. The ambassador also explained at length how the African Union and IGAD member countries have already recommended the latest round of tougher sanctions.

Capital