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Iran's Mini-Empire at the UN

(Forbes) Claudia Rosett - Despite being under four sets of binding sanctions resolutions by the UN Security Council, Iran has learned to manipulate that institution. Iran gained a seat in April on the UN's Commission on the Status of Women. Iran sits on the 36-member executive board of the UN Development Program. Iran actually chaired the UNDP executive board last year, during the thick of the bloody protests in which Tehran's mullocracy was beating, jailing and killing protesters calling for democratic development in Iran. Iran also sits on the boards of both the UN children's agency (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP). Iran is a vice chair of the executive council of the UN's Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and sits on two major commissions of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), including the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Iran sits on the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development. At the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the Legal Subcommittee is currently chaired by the head of the Iranian Space Agency, Ahmad Talebzadeh. Iran also sits on the governing council of the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), and on the governing boards of the UN Environment Program and the UN Human Settlements Program. The writer is a journalist in residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2010-07-27 10:30:15
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