CAIRO, Oct 15 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt won a non-permanent member seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Thursday for the 2016-2017 term.

In the voting session, Egypt secured the votes of 179 of the 193 nations entitled to vote at the UN.

Egypt ran for the North Africa seat unopposed and now represents Africa along with Senegal.

This is the fifth time Egypt is voted as a non-permanent Security Council member, according to the UN.

The Security Council includes 15 members, five of whom are permanent: Russia, China, US, UK and France. Permanent members have the right to veto any decision by the Security Council.

The remaining 10 seats are for non-permanent members to be elected by the General Assembly every two years.

UNSC meetings can be called at any given time to take decisions over disputes, international threats, military actions against aggressors or the application of sanctions to prevent aggression.