Search for U.N. Chief Shifts Focus to Summit in Africa
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UNITED NATIONS — The search for a new U.N. secretary-general shifted Thursday to a French-African summit after Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt suspended his candidacy in the face of unrelenting U.S. opposition.
Boutros-Ghali on Wednesday asked the U.N. Security Council not to include him in further votes until he again presents his name as a candidate for reelection.
Western diplomats said the announcement paves the way for Africa to submit new candidates to the Security Council to keep the post from going to a non-African. African diplomats said agreement on a candidate could emerge during a meeting of French President Jacques Chirac and more than 20 African heads of state that concludes today in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou.
Sources close to Boutros-Ghali, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that his advisors were considering a number of scenarios for a “graceful exit.”
The United States cast the lone veto against Boutros-Ghali in a first-round vote in the 15-member Security Council on Nov. 19.
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