Iran Sending Peacekeepers to the UN? They've Got To Be Kidding

Claudia Rosett

Oct 05, 2011 10:40 AM October 05, 2011 10:40 AM

Surely they’re joking. Right? Iranian state news services are reporting that the commander of the Iranian Army’s ground forces, Brig. Gen Pourdastan, is offering to dispatch Iranian troops to serve as United Nations peacekeepers. Apparently the General believes this will “indicate the power and strength of Iran’s Armed Forces.”

Tehran-based PressTV says that according to Pourdastan, “Iran’s Foreign Ministry is negotiating to send Iranian peacekeepers to regions designated by the UN.”

Negotiating with whom???

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected] Claudia Rosett is widely recognized as a ground-breaking reporter on corruption at the United Nations. Her investigative reporting skills, drawn from three decades as a journalist covering international affairs, led her to expose the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, the worst financial fraud in the history of humanitarian relief. Ms. Rosett worked from 1984-2002 as a staff editorialist, editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared before six U.S. House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees to testify on subjects including U.N.-related corruption and the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. Her work on Oil-for-Food earned Claudia the 2005 Eric Breindel Award and the Mightier Pen award, and for her on-site coverage of China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, she won an Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence. She is a Foreign Policy Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum, and writes a column on foreign affairs for Forbes.com.