UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) — Iran regained its voting rights in the UN General Assembly on Friday after making the payment on its UN dues and lashed out at the United States for maintaining sanctions that have prevented it from accessing billions of dollars in foreign banks.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq announced that Iran had paid $16,251,298 and was able to vote in Friday’s election for five new members of the UN Security Council. He thanked banking and government authorities in various places, including South Korea, for enabling the payment to be made.
In a tweet, Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said: “Illegal U.S. sanctions have not just deprived our people of medicine; they have also prevented Iran from paying our dues in arrears to the UN. After more than 6 months of working on it, the UN today announced it has received the funds. ALL inhumane sanctions must be lifted NOW.”
Iran lost its voting rights in January and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter circulated June 2 that Tehran had still not paid the minimum and would continue being unable to vote, along with Central African Republic.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif sent a letter to Guterres the following day saying the United States’ “unlawful unilateral sanctions” and its “economic warfare” have most importantly prevented Iran from using its own money to buy food and medicine, in addition to not paying due to the UN and some other international organizations.
He wrote that the “U.S.’ unlawful acts of war” had frozen Iran’s ”multi-billion dollars of cash deposits -- and not assets or reserves -- in South Korean, Japanese, Iraqi and other banks.”
He complained it was “deplorable” that Iran was deprived of its voting rights “due to conditions totally beyond its control.”
Zarif pointed out that 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 control’?” the chief Iranian diplomat asked.