Five new countries have joined the UN Security Council as non-permanent members starting from the new year, while Jordan assumed Thursday the rotating presidency of the Council for January.

Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria have begun their two- year term, replacing Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo.

Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zedi Al-Hussein, the permanent representative of Jordan to the United Nations, took over the rotating council presidency from Gerard Araud, the French UN

ambassador who held the council presidency for the month of December 2013.

The UN General Assembly on Dec. 6 elected Jordan, which had served twice on the Security Council since becoming a UN member in 1955, to take the Security Council seat rejected by Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia refused to take up the seat, saying the 15-member Security Council have "double standards" and failed to act on crisis in the Middle East.

ANN.Az