You’ve got to hand it to the UN. What a perverse sense of humor they possess!
Like Libya getting a spot on the UN Human Rights Committee during the reign of Gaddaffi, the stand-up comics who run the UN thought it would be a real knee-slapper if they gave Iran a seat on the UN Nuclear Disarmament Committee.
No, really.
Hours after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu railed against Iran’s nuclear program from the UN General Assembly’s stage on Tuesday, member states elected Iran to be the rapporteur for the Disarmament and International Security Committee.
Iran’s representative will replace Norwegian diplomat Knut Langeland. The position’s duties include relaying information and reports on disarmament and armament activities between the committee and the General Assembly.
The First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, which is comprised of all 193 member states, “considers all disarmament and international security matters” and “seeks out solutions to the challenges in the international security regime.”
One of its main functions is to draft resolutions that are later debated by the General Assembly; the committee has no power to pass resolutions.
Iran applied for the position on July 30. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor said then that if Iran were to assume such a post, it would be like “inviting Assad, the Syrian dictator responsible for the death of 100,000 of his own people, to be the head of the population census bureau.”
On Wednesday, the American Jewish Committee condemned the UN’s decision, saying it was “appalled” at the election.
“Rewarding Iran for misbehavior is a tragic stain on the UN,” AJC executive director David Harris said. “Nonetheless, this should not in any way deter world powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US – from standing firm in current negotiations to ensure that Iran comes clean on its nuclear program.”
The Anti-Defamation League expressed similar feelings of astonishment. ADL’s executive directory Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement that this was “the height of hypocrisy,” and “simply unbelievable.”
What’s so unbelievable about it? This is the UN — a place where sticking it to Israel and the US trumps everything. It’s a place where thugs who belong in the dock for committing the most nauseating atrocities are welcomed and feted.
The UN appears to have a singular blind spot when it comes to Iran. A few years ago, they elected Iran — a country that denies women basic human dignity — to a spot on the Commission on the Status of Women.
I guess the Committee on Beheading Apostate Westerners didn’t have any room.
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