5-state veto power at UN Security Council has ‘no place in the 21st century,’ says Irish minister

The five-state veto power at the UN Security Council has "no place in the 21st century" and its misuse is spreading "anachronism," the Irish foreign minister said on Saturday.

"The veto should go, in our view, it's an anachronism," Micheal Martin said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, referring to the U.S. using its veto power on several occasions to block a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in the UN Security Council.

"It has no place in the 21st century. It really hasn't," Martin said categorically, vowing that "we really have to keep the pressure on that."

"We are in no doubt that the Security Council is dysfunctional," Martin said, pointing to the "dysfunctionality and the abuse of the veto situation at the Security Council."

The minister also noted that "the Security Council hasn't managed (to issue) a statement even on Ukraine. That is an extraordinary failure," and the resolutions on Gaza "have been weak."

"There's been more veto than action at the Security Council on Gaza for example," he said.