Eight states, including Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, have lost their right to vote at the UN because of too much debt to the organization, Secretary General Antonio announced Tuesday (January 11). Guterres to the members of the General Assembly.
In total, "
11 member states are currently in arrears in the payment of their contributions within the meaning of Article 19 of the United Nations Charter
", specifies the head of the UN in his letter obtained Wednesday by AFP.
Read alsoLebanon pays arrears to the UN and recovers its right to vote
This article provides for a suspension of the right to vote at the General Assembly for any country whose amount of arrears is equal to or greater than the contribution due by it for the past two full years.
If the failure is due "
to circumstances beyond its control
", a State referred to in article 19 may however retain its right to vote and this is the case in 2022 for the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia, specifies Antonio Guterres.
Besides Iran, Sudan and Venezuela, the other five countries that have lost their voting rights are Antigua and Barbuda, Congo, Guinea, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, he adds.
An annual budget of around $ 3 billion
The secretary general specifies the minimum amount that each of these countries must pay to recover their voting rights: Iran will have to spend a little more than $ 18 million, Sudan nearly $ 300,000 and Venezuela about $ 40 million. . Last year, Iran had already lost its right to vote due to bad debts. Tehran had said it could not meet the minimum required for its debts at the UN because of economic and financial sanctions imposed by Washington. After several months of negotiations, an exemption had been granted to Tehran allowing it to pay the minimum debt required and to recover its voting rights in June, just before the election of new members to the UN Security Council.
Iran "
is committed to paying in full and on time
" its contributions, reacted in Tehran the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “
Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, due to oppressive and illegal US sanctions, our country's payments have been in trouble
,” he added. "
The Secretary General of the United Nations and the secretariat should take into account the specific circumstances of countries facing illegal sanctions and not hesitate to help these countries to pay their contributions
", also estimated the Iranian ministry.
The UN's annual operating budget, approved in December, is around $ 3 billion.
The peace operations budget, separated and approved in June, amounts to some $ 6.5 billion.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/AD2TMVZ5XQUDUGJNBTOYF4FIIA.jpg)
