The election of five new non-permanent members to the United Nations Security Council sent starkly different messages to two neighboring Muslim nations in the Middle East.

Turkey, which last held a UNSC seat in 1961 and lobbied hard in the months leading up to the election, secured 151 votes from the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, easily defeating its competition. Iran, meanwhile, saw its hopes of holding a seat for the first time since 1956 crushed, garnering just 32 votes in its bid for the Asian seat against Japan, the U.N.'s second largest donor. ...