Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, informed UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid that 11 countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, have lost their right to vote at the United Nations because of unpaid dues.
The secretary general mentioned that Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, Antigua and Barbuda, Guinea, Congo, and Papua New Guinea are among the states that have lost their vote right.
According to the UN regulations, the member states' share in providing the organization with the required budget is based on pre-planned indices, including each country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Under the Article 19 of the UN charter, if a member state's debts equal or exceed the amount that should have been paid over the preceding two full years, the member loses its voting rights.
If the debt of any member state is deemed to be due to conditions beyond the control of the member, the member may still be allowed to vote.
Iran's share in the UN's budget stands at 0/371 percent (slightly less than 0/5 percent), which is around 18 million dollars per annum.
Guterres announced that the minimum payments to restore vote rights for Venezuela, Sudan, and Iran are around 40 million dollars, 300,000 dollars, and 18 million dollars respectively.
Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi stated that the Islamic Republic has always abided by its commitments as an active member of the United Nations to pay its dues on time, but the United States' illegal and unilateral sanctions prevented Tehran from paying membership fees for the second year in a row.
The envoy went on to say that the inhuman sanctions have got in the way of Iran to procure medicine and medical equipment as well as conduct its normal activities at the UN.
The Islamic Republic possesses enough money to pay its membership fee, but the sanctions prevent from carrying out this duty, he noted.
In fact, different US administrations have tried to misuse embargo as a tool to put pressure on other nations, including Iran; however, the strategy has been doomed to failure due to independent countries' resistance.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that the Biden administration has decided to change the US's foreign policy and restrict the use of sanctions as a tool to put pressure, but the US Department of Treasury has declared following a nine-month review that sanctions would stay in place as an important tool in Washington's foreign policy and that it should be optimized in the future.
The Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed anti-Iran sanctions.
Now, the Biden administration maintains the illegal sanctions on the Iranians in a bid to use them as a leverage in the Vienna talks.
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