TEHRAN (Iran News) – Tehran Blasts UN for Suspending Its Voting Rights Due to Delinquent Debts. The Iranian foreign minister has objected to the announcement that Tehran would lose its right to vote at the UN General Assembly due to its overdue payment to the world body.
In a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Zarif described the decision as unacceptable.
“I am writing to convey our strong dismay over the announcement that the Islamic Republic of Iran will lose its voting privileges in the United Nations General Assembly due to the arrears in the payment of its financial contribution to the United Nations,” read part of the letter.
He said the reason for Iran’s delay in payment was Washington’s sanctions.
“This decision is fundamentally flawed, entirely unacceptable and completely unjustified, as Iran’s inability to fulfill its financial obligations towards the United Nations is directly caused by ‘unlawful unilateral sanctions’ imposed by the United States to punish those who comply with a Security Council Resolution,” said Zarif in his letter.
“As you, and indeed the whole world, are well aware, the people of Iran have been under the most unprecedented economic warfare – and indeed economic terrorism – following the Trump administration’s US unilateral withdrawal from JCPOA (shamelessly continued to this day by its successor as so-called “bargaining leverage”) in material breach of peremptory norms of international law, the Charter of the UN and UNSCR 2231,” he explained.
“The U.S.’ unlawful acts of war and economic terrorism have impaired Iran’s capacity to transfer our financial contribution to the United Nations and some other international organizations,” he said.
The UN Charter gives the General Assembly the authority to decide that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member, and in that case, a country can continue to vote. By what definition are Iran’s arrears not “due to conditions beyond (its) control”? Zarif wrote.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, therefore, rejects the notification on suspension of its voting privileges. Iran’s incapacity to transfer its financial contribution has been entirely beyond its control and is directly and intentionally caused by multiple U.S. unlawful acts violations of Pacta Sunt Servanda, unilateral coercive measures in violation of UNSCR 2231, seizure judgments in violation of sovereign immunity, restriction on any and all financial transactions in violation of international humanitarian law, and 10 provisional measures of 3 October 2018, and etcetera, he stressed.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully committed to fulfilling its financial obligations to the United Nations and will continue to make every effort to settle the arrears in the payment of its financial contribution to the UN and other international organizations as soon as the underlying imposed condition, i.e. the US unlawful unilateral coercive measures, is removed, he noted.
I will be grateful if this letter is circulated as a document of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration, Zarif concluded.
