US: Envoy Won’t Attend UN Disarmament Councils Led By Iran

Insists Iran Should Be Barred From Holding Chair

The Obama Administration has announced that they will no longer allow their ambassador to attend UN Conference on Disarmament meetings because the rotating chairman position has passed to Iran.

The US maintains that since there are sanctions against Iran they should be barred from holding “any formal or ceremonial positions” at the UN. Iran will hold the position from May 27 through June 23.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman shrugged off the complaints, saying that the 65-member council came up with the monthly rotating leadership plan, and since Iran is a member it was eventually going to be the leader.

Iran has been supportive of calls for a nuclear-free Middle East, a plan which the NPT member states initially supported, but which the US loudly condemned since Israel is the sole nation in the region with nuclear weapons.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.