Kuwait began this week its June presidency of the United Nations Security Council, for the second time in the second and final year of holding the non-permanent Arab seat on the council. Kuwait will use the presidency to highlight several Arab issues, mainly the Palestinian issue. It is the third time Kuwait heads the Security Council presidency since it joined the UN in 1963. Kuwait’s ambassador to the UN, Mansour Al-Otaibi, who is leading the monthly rotating Security Council presidency in June, said his country would work on four priorities: conflict prevention and mediation, humanitarian issues, the Palestinian issue and developing the Council’s working mechanisms to increase efficiency and transparency and improve its methods. Kuwait plans to adopt the Council’s first-ever resolution on missing people in situations of armed conflict when it debates the issue during a high-level meeting on June 11. “Missing persons is a humanitarian issue normally dealt with at the end of a conflict, not during,” the Kuwaiti ambassador said this week. The small-rich Arab country held the Council presidency 39 years ago during its 1978-1979 non-permanent Arab seat on the council. This month, Kuwait plans to address a meeting on Arab League-United Nations cooperation with hopes of laying the groundwork for greater cooperation and interaction between the two organizations. Overall, the Security Council presidency plans to hold 18 briefings and 14 consultations in June. Otaibi said the Council is overwhelmed by Arab issues and therefore, it is scheduled to hold three separate meetings on Syria, dealing with the political and humanitarian aspects of the conflict as well as the use of chemical weapons. The Kuwaiti ambassador said the success of his country’s diplomacy in the past years is thanks to the initiative of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.