---
title: "Erdogan Asks the UN to Scrap the Veto — and Only the Veto-Holders Can Say Yes"
description: "Change would need the consent of all five permanent members — the very states that hold the veto"
author: "Arthur Wren"
published: 2026-09-26T13:17:05Z
modified: 2026-09-27T00:07:52Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/erdogan-asks-the-un-to-scrap-the-veto-and-only-the-veto-hold-f0b56d
language: en
tags: ["un", "turkiye", "security-council", "erdogan", "politics", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Erdogan Asks the UN to Scrap the Veto — and Only the Veto-Holders Can Say Yes

*Change would need the consent of all five permanent members — the very states that hold the veto*

By Arthur Wren · September 26, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/erdogan-asks-the-un-to-scrap-the-veto-and-only-the-veto-hold-f0b56d

## In brief

- Erdogan called the Security Council veto “unjust” and said it hinders “global stability and peace”
- The council — five permanent and ten rotating members — is deadlocked on Gaza, Ukraine and the Strait of Hormuz
- Abolishing the veto would require the agreement of all five permanent members, who could veto the change itself
- Africa separately renewed its claim to two permanent council seats at this year’s General Assembly

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkiye has told the United Nations that the five permanent members of the Security Council should lose their veto. The present system, he said, is “unjust” and stands in the way of “global stability and peace”. It is not a new complaint from him, but it lands at a useful moment.

The council he described is easy to picture. Five states hold permanent seats, each with the power to kill a resolution on its own. Ten more rotate through with a vote and no such power. The result, as Al Jazeera notes, is deadlock on nearly everything of weight this autumn — Israel’s war on Gaza, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the Strait of Hormuz.

Could the veto be abolished? On paper, yes. In practice it would require the agreement of all five permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. Each of them can stop the change using the very instrument the change would abolish. Mr Erdogan’s proposal must be approved by the power it proposes to strip, which is a tidy summary of why the council looks as it does.

He is not the only voice at this General Assembly demanding a different council. [Africa has renewed its claim to two permanent seats](https://rews.cc/a/the-continent-with-the-most-business-and-no-permanent-chair--1bb361), and to the veto itself for as long as the veto exists. The two demands pull in opposite directions — one wants more hands on the weapon, the other wants the weapon melted down — and both arrive at the same locked door.

The veto is not an accident of the system. It is the system’s foundation, the guarantee that nothing can be done to a great power without its own consent. Those who hold it have never yet voted to surrender it. The veto stays.