Guterres: Iran’s UN voting rights will be suspended if debt is not paid

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 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.

The UN Secretary-General, in his letter to Volkan Bozkir, President of the UN General Assembly, stated that Iran, the Central African Republic, Comoros, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Somalia will be deprived of 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 passed a resolution allowing these countries to retain voting rights during this session. This session 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 dues for more than two years will be deprived of voting rights in the assembly.

Antonio Guterres also granted the UN General Assembly the authority to decide on countries whose non-payment is due to factors beyond their control, and in such cases, to allow them to retain their voting rights.

According to the Associated Press, Iran’s debt stands at $16 million and 251 thousand dollars, while the Central African Republic has a debt of over $29 million.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister, confirmed in the last month of the previous year that Iran owes $16 million to the United Nations and said that Tehran intends to pay this money for “voting rights and debt reduction to the United Nations.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif added that the United States has “prevented payment” of Iran’s debt to the United Nations from frozen funds in South Korea.

However, a South Korean official said on the 15th of the last month of the previous year that negotiations and an agreement with the United States for the release of part of Iran’s blocked assets in the country to pay Tehran’s debt to the United Nations had entered the final stage.

But it appears that despite these measures, Iran has not yet been able to pay its debt to the United Nations.

Source: Radio Farda