A recent eport released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveals that the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which holds veto power, are single-handedly dominating the global arms market.Sales of arms and military services in 2015 totaled some $370 billion, excluding that of China's.The U.S., despite a decline over previous years, hit sales of over $209 billion, carving up some 56 percent of the global market. The U.K. racked up 10 percent, while Russia grabbed 8.1 percent of total sales. Meanwhile, France had 5 percent of global sales, making it the fourth biggest arms seller in the world."Western companies monopolize the top 12 positions in the ranking of top exporters with U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin leading with $36.4 billion in revenues, followed by another U.S. defense and aerospace giant, Boeing, with $28 billion, while Britain's BAE Systems had sales of $25.5 billion," the report reveals. "Even though, total sales fell by some 0.6 percent, dropping for the fifth consecutive year, the amount has reached $370.7 billion," SIPRI said.Reports by Agence-French Presse (AFP) support the claim as it showed North American arms manufacturers have remained dominant despite a 2.9 percent fall in their turnover because of ongoing limitations on government spending, including military spending and the strength of the U.S. dollar, which weighed down exports.Meanwhile, the six French firms in the top 100 companies, including Dassault, Thales and Safran, increased arms sales by almost 13.1 percent, outpacing German and British manufacturers that notched 7.4 percent and 2.8 percent growth, respectively, the AFP reported."The combined arms sales of the 11 Russian companies in 2015 reached $30.1 billion, a 6.2 percent increase, representing 8.1 percent of the total arms sold by the top 100 companies. Ten out of the 11 companies listed saw an increase in their arms sales in 2015," the SIPRI report said. SIPRI Senior Researcher Siemon Wezeman said, "Profiting from the Russian military modernization program, most of the top Russian companies have increased their arms sales in constant rubles."Sales by Turkish arms manufacturers' also increased by at least 10 percent as ASELSAN and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) were listed among the top 100.ASELSAN's saw around $1 billion in sales in 2015, up from $979 million in 2014. TAI's sales, on the other hand, increased to $890 million from $736 million. Both companies improved their positions on last year's list, with ASELSAN rising to 69th from 74th position and TAI climbing to 78th from 91st.The increase in their sales, however, was directly related to the rise of some terror groups posing threats to Turkey's security, as the report cited strong domestic demand.Domination of the arms sales market by the U.S., U.K., Russian and French companies, raises questions about the U.N.'s ability to keep peace around the world with the world's top arms-selling nations placed at the organization's power core. These countries are also directly involved in the wars and conflicts in the Middle East, and U.S. and Russian-made weapons are being used in some of the deadliest conflicts in the world, including Syria.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an interview with Israeli Channel 2 last month said Daesh uses weapons made in the West, the Syrian regime was using Russian weapons, while opposition groups and the PKK's Syrian offshoot, the PYD, mostly use U.S.-made weapons.The report, for instance, without sighting any reason for the increase, said Russian exports increased by 6.2 percent over 2014, which leads to a logical question as to whether the Syrian war had an impact on the increase.A 2014 report released by Conflict Armament Research said Daesh militants were using various weapons manufactured by several countries, including the U.S., China and Russia. The report noted that almost 20 percent of the cartridges cataloged could be traced to U.S. manufacturers. The report also pointed out that Daesh uses ammunition manufactured in Russia under the Wolf brand and distributed by the U.S. to allied states in the Middle East. It also gives the total number of cartridges documented by country of origin. According to the report, Daesh had 445 Chinese, 338 Soviet, 323 American and 154 Russian cartridges, while most of the sample ammunition recovered in Iraq was mainly of American origin.These reports clearly show that the countries apparently tasked with maintaining world peace through their positions on the U.N. Security Council are instead stoking the fire of war around the globe with their constant supply of weapons, and this brings about a more important question as to how these countries can contribute to world peace when in fact they are living off wars?