Guterres: Iran's voting rights at the UN will be suspended if it fails to pay its debts
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced in a letter on Wednesday that Iran and four other countries will lose their voting rights in the UN General Assembly if they fail to pay their share of the organization's operating budget.
In his letter to UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozker, the UN Secretary-General said that Iran, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia will be deprived of their voting rights in the General Assembly due to their financial debts to the United Nations.
Antonio Guterres, however, clarified that the UN General Assembly had previously approved a resolution allowing these countries to vote in this period, which will end in September.
According to Article 19 of the UN Charter, any member state of the General Assembly that fails to pay its membership fees for more than two years will be deprived of its right to vote in the Assembly.
Antonio Guterres has also given the UN General Assembly the authority to decide on countries whose debt defaults are due to factors beyond their control, allowing them to continue to have voting rights.
According to the Associated Press, Iran's debt is $16.251 million, and the Central African Republic has a debt of more than $29 million.
In February of last year, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, while confirming Iran's $16 million debt to the United Nations, said that Tehran intends to pay this money to the United Nations for "voting rights and debt reduction."
Mohammad Javad Zarif added that the United States had "prevented" Iran from paying its debt to the United Nations from funds blocked in South Korea.
However, a South Korean official said on February 5th of last year that negotiations and an agreement with the United States to release some of Iran's frozen assets in the country to pay Tehran's debt to the United Nations had entered the final stage.
But it seems that despite these measures, Iran has still not been able to pay its debt to the United Nations.
Source: Radio Farda
