The most amusing, if not necessarily most important story to come out of the Middle East this week: Iran turns out to be the biggest deadbeat in the UN, owing that body $16.2 million that it has been unable to come up with. Once Iran wallowed in wealth, suffering from an embarrass de richesse, the oil money came in torrents, and in the good old pre-Khomeini days days Iran’s rich would fly in catered meals from Fauchon and Hediard in Paris – surely the most expensive version of GrubHub ever invented. The Shah spent hundreds of millions of dollars on celebrating the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire in October 1971. But that was then, and this is now, and Iran has fallen on hard times. The UN has just announced that for failure to pay its dues, Iran will lose its voting rights in the General Assembly. One less vote in the Kangaroo Court of the UN General Assembly against Israel, one giant step for mankind. What was once an embarrassment of Iranian riches has become, in a time of economic collapse in Teheran, merely an embarrassment. The report on Iran’s empty pockets is here: “Iran loses UN voting rights over unpaid dues, blames US sanctions,” by Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2021
Iran and six other countries lost their right to vote in the UN General Assembly, because they have not paid their dues, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
Iran blamed US sanctions for blocking the Islamic Republic from paying its required contribution to the UN.
Guterres wrote a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir of Turkey that the countries in arrears to the UN will have their UNGA voting rights suspended in accordance with the UN charter, which calls for the suspension of voting rights if a member state fails to pay its fees for more than two years.
Iran owes $16.2 million, more than any other country.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the funds designated for UN payments are frozen in two South Korean banks, due to US sanctions. He said the Islamic Republic has a total of $7 billion in those banks.
Khatibzadeh demanded that the UN guarantee the payments are safely transferred without using US banks.
“Given that the United States has encroached upon Iran’s international assets before, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists that the UN not use an American intermediary bank to receive our country’s membership fee, or that this organization guarantee the financial transfer channel,” Iran International News quoted Khatibzadeh as saying.
Blaming the Great Satan for your inability to come up with $16.2 million is absurd. There are many ways to pay that UN bill without being forced to use an American bank. The Iranians could, if they wished, use a Qatari bank to transfer funds – Qatar is, as of this writing, still friendly with Iran. It hasn’t yet succumbed to the blandishments of the GCC, that has ended its blockade of Qatar and welcomed the waddling Emir with open arms. Here’s an even better suggestion: why not use a Russian bank? Surely Vladimir Putin would be glad to help out his friends in Tehran. What a marvelous way for Putin to join the Supreme Leader in jointly thumbing their noses at the Great Satan. And if Iran wants to do something really daring, why doesn’t it pay its UN bill with Bitcoin or some other up-and-coming cryptocurrency? And finally, what about the tried-and-true Suitcase Method? Just as Qassem Soleimani once delivered an even larger sum — $22 million – in bags of cash to Hamas delegates at the airport just before they left Tehran in 2006, nothing prevents the Iranian government from scraping together $16.2 million in cash – I’m sure the Supreme Leader can come with that amount from his petty cash; after all, the business empire Ayatollah Khamenei controls is worth $250 billion. That sum can be neatly placed in a few suitcases, and then Foreign Minister Javad Zarif can hand-deliver those suitcases stuffed with cash to U.N Secretary-General Guterres.
But while Iran will then be given back its right to vote in the General Assembly, it can’t undo the fact that in not paying its dues for more than two years, it has cut a sorry figure on the world stage, a seeming – albeit temporary – deadbeat, trying to pin its failure to pay the UN on the US sanctions, when there are plenty of ways to deliver that $16.2 million.
But even if Iran settles up, the world knows now that for two years it could not, or would not, out of some blend of spite, economic distress, and desire to find one more reason to blame the US, come up with what is, in international transactions, a trivial sum. This provides an embarrassing image – poor Iran, standing on a crepuscular street corner under a streetlight, one hand held out in Eleemosynary Position #1, as it quietly sings “Brother, can you spare a dime?” — that the Islamic Republic, so defiant of both the Great and the Little Satan, a braggart warrior that keeps hinting it is ready to roll, wants to be quickly forgotten. I don’t think it will fall in arrears again.
Buraq says
Not to worry. Sleepy Joe’s mafia will stump up – in return for an empty promise about not developing nuclear weapons, or some such twaddle.
gravenimage says
All too likely, Buraq.
mortimer says
Yes, Sleepy Joe will use your money to help the Iranian mullahs in their plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
terry sullivan says
un needs to be shu down
revereridesagain says
Better yet, if enough New Yorkers show up and get a good running start across First Avenue and give it a shove, they can make a nice new bridge across the East River.
Infidel says
Precisely, I don’t see Iran’s big loss in losing a vote. As it is, the bulk of Arab countries vote against them, and their only potential supporters are China, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia
Sylvia Drummond says
More like, Allah can you spare a dime.
gravenimage says
🙂
notnolib says
No worries! With China Joe now at the helm, the first plane with pallets of cash will be leaving momentarily.
E T says
Iran should consult with WHO Director- General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and ask him how the hell he got to be worth 83 million. maybe he could spare a dime.
Quazgaa says
The dollar god is stronger than that arabic deity, allah.
Hilarious..
Mojdeh says
I am so glad they are no more in UN.
Mojdeh says
Cycle of Bloodshed In Iran Must Not Be Allowed To Continue: Amnesty International
On the third anniversary of the nationwide protests of December 2017 and January 2018 in Iran, Amnesty International released a statement once again calling for justice for the “dozens of protesters, including children,” who were killed by the security forces of the Islamic Republic across the country.
Amnesty International’s statement on Wednesday declares that the organization also stands in solidarity with those seeking truth and accountability for the thousands of protesters who were arbitrarily detained, tortured, or received other ill-treatments in prison, or died in custody in suspicious circumstances and those who were subsequently sentenced to death or executed following grossly unfair trials.
In late December of 2017, protests against the inflation and high prices began in Mashhad and other cities of Iran’s eastern province of Razavi Khorasan province, but they immediately turned into an anti-regime uprising that spread across the country in over 100 cities and towns.
The statement continues: “Three years on from the deadly crackdown, the Iranian authorities have refused to open even a single criminal investigation into the litany of crimes and human rights violations committed by Iran’s security forces both during the protests and in their aftermath, including unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment, and grossly unfair trials leading to the execution of at least one protester and death sentences for several others.”
“Instead, consistent with longstanding patterns of state cover-up and denial, the authorities have subjected victims’ families to intimidation and harassment to prevent them from speaking out,” Amnesty states.
After three years, there is still no information on the number of the killed protesters and none of the Islamic Republic officials have taken responsibility for killing dozens of protesters.
According to Amnesty, the prevailing impunity afforded to the security forces and the muted response of the international community has only emboldened the Iranian authorities to escalate their unlawful use of lethal force in the subsequent mass protests of November 2019.
In November of 2019, another country-wide uprising was ignited in 30 provinces by the government’s announcement of the decision to triple the price of gasoline.
At the time, Reuters reported Ali Khamenei’s restlessness in a meeting with senior security officials, in which he asked them to stop the mass protests “by any means necessary.” There are names of 28 children and teenagers under 18 years of age among the identified victims.
Amnesty then made a plea to the international security to stop the Islamic Republic’s “cycle of bloodshed” by applying pressure to Iran.
“It falls on the international community to pressure the Iranian authorities to stop the recurrent pattern of using lethal force to crush protests, including by the UN Human Rights Council establishing an independent international investigation into the protests of November 2019 when the crackdown reached an unprecedented level since the 1980s.” IRAN OUT OF UN FOR EVER NOW?
gravenimage says
In Arrears, Iran Loses its Vote in the UN
………………
D’oh!
OLD GUY says
The answer is simple, just send a plane load of cash to Iran and they will pay off their UN debt with American tax dollars. The correct step that needs to be taken is to kick them out of the UN. and keep the sanctions on. Not holding my breath on Joe doing the right thing, particularly if there is a lot of cash floating around.
Giacomo Latta says
”owing that body $16.2 million that it has been unable to come up with”
Maybe its friends in Venezuela can hold a garage sale in support.
Del says
No problem. Now that Biden has a love-in with the fake Nuclear treaty, Iran will sell a few nuclear weapons to ISIS. Send them as ship cargo to a China owned American harbour and set the thing off. EASY.