UN Criticized for Failing to Counter Unilateralism

An Iranian envoy to the United Nations aired grievances over the world body’s failure to confront the US hostile unilateral actions, describing it as a frustrating setback to international multilateral diplomacy.

Addressing a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Es’haq Al-e Habib cited the US covering for atrocities by its regional allies and attempts to impose its anti-Iran stance on the council by demanding action to address Tehran’s missile development and recent economic demonstrations in Iran.

“It seems that the current US administration now is even more enthusiastic to follow that reckless and failed pattern of regarding the Security Council as its ‘toolbox’,” Al-e Habib said, citing two most recent “outrageous” examples of such a US approach. 

“On January 5, 2018, the United States pushed for an emergency meeting on an issue that flagrantly falls outside of the scope of its mandate. On January 29, 2018, the US mission set up a show … to present the members of the Security Council with some fabricated evidence, such as a Saudi-supplied destroyed yet intact missile,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks carried by IRNA. 

  Matter of Disappointment

The envoy also criticized the council for failing to take the slightest action to stop the US administration from providing impunity to Israel in pursuing its occupying policies on Palestine and to Saudi Arabia, another ally of the US that has conducted three years of deadly airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen. 

“These failures of the council attributable to the obstructionist approach by the US, is a matter of disappointment and frustration for multilateral diplomacy,” Al-e Habib said.

He noted that the US has acknowledged its approach to the UN as a “tool”, referring to remarks by the US ambassador to the United Nations in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on March 5, 2006, who said, “It is critical that we use the council to help mobilize international public opinion. Rest assured, though, we are not relying on the Security Council as the only tool in our toolbox to address this problem.”

Al-e Habib added, “It is absolutely vital for the credibility of the Security Council to reject the intentions to turn it into a tool to pursue national political interests and agendas. Unfortunately, it is happening.” 

The US Security Council meeting called by the US to discuss week-long protests that erupted in Iran in late December turned into criticism of the United States for requesting to meet on what some member states said was an internal issue for Tehran.

France’s ambassador to the UN, Francois Delattre, told the meeting that the protests do not threaten international peace and security, his Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the United States of abusing the Security Council’s platform to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, and China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wu Haitao said raising the issue of protests “does not help resolve the domestic issue of Iran.” 

The ambassadors from the UN Security Council were taken late last month by the US administration on a field trip to inspect what American officials claimed were remnants of Iranian missiles and other weaponry illegally supplied to the Houthis.

Iran denies US allegations that it has been supplying Houthis with arms.