| Submit your comments on this article |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| US envoy won't attend arms talks led by Iran |
| 2013-05-14 |
| The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the U.N. forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it's chaired by Iran because countries under U.N. sanctions shouldn't be allowed to hold such positions. Erin Pelton, spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said in a statement that a country "in flagrant violation" of U.N. Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency obligations stemming from its suspect nuclear program should be barred from any formal or ceremonial positions in U.N. bodies. The 65-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world's most important disarmament negotiating forum. Though members have been divided in recent years, the conference and its predecessors have negotiated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament efforts, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Pelton said it is "unfortunate and highly inappropriate" for Iran to hold the rotating presidency of the conference from May 27 until June 23 even if the post "is largely ceremonial and involves no substantive responsibilities." The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran because of concerns it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. The IAEA inspects Tehran's known nuclear facilities and is trying to probe suspicions that Iran has secretly worked on developing nuclear weapons after more than five years of stagnation. |
| Posted by:tipper |