France, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, is increasing efforts to regulate the use of the veto as it hopes to widen UN sanctions on Sudan, diplomatic sources have said.
"Sudan is a prime example often cited to illustrate the need to move past these vetoes," French diplomatic sources said. "We see that it has proven impossible to expand the sanctions regime – currently focused on Darfur – to the entire country, or to impose an arms embargo."
Implemented in 2005, the sanctions include an arms embargo focused on the western region of Darfur.
The UN Security Council has two more weeks to consider a US proposal to spread the arms embargo across the country, after agreeing to extend the existing restrictions for 30 days.
Washington has pushed for the short-term extension to allow further negotiations on the embargo, rather than renewing the existing sanctions for another year.
It has been increasing pressure for the UN arms embargo to cover all of Sudan, saying that cutting off foreign weapons and support to the country's warring parties is essential to ending the civil war.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises, with an estimated 20 million people suffering from hunger. Both forces have been accused of dire abuses during the war.
Decade-old effort
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the veto "all too often prevents the United Nations from taking action to halt acts of genocide, the gravest war crimes, or crimes against humanity".
Earlier this year, Mr Barrot led efforts to revive a decade-old French effort to regulate the use of the veto. Paris rallied dozens of countries in the past months, including most recently Vietnam, the Bahamas and Gambia.
France, which like the UK has not used its veto right since 1989, aims to have a comfortable majority of about 150 states before submitting a resolution to debate at the UN General Assembly. The aim is to increase political pressure on the countries that most often exercise their right to veto – Russia and the US – to moderate their use of it.
In a diplomatic win for Paris, the UK said earlier this week at the UN General Assembly that it would join the French initiative, bringing the total number of countries behind the initiative to 128 of 193. The UK is also a permanent member of the Security Council.
Russia and the US have used their veto to protect allies and advance their political objectives, with Moscow recently vetoing actions on the Ukraine war and Washington blocking resolutions on Gaza ceasefires.
