Zarif: UNSC Procrastination Major Setback to Multilateralism

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council late on Tuesday “If this Council falters again, it will be a generational setback for the cause of multilateralism and the rule of law.”

He said that and yet, not a single Council session has been convened to reprove the US Government, or to at least investigate its repeated violations, adding that instead, some European members of the Council are contemplating further undermining the Resolution and the Council while further reneging on their own JCPOA commitments.

"To cover this up, the US has—with some of its enablers—pressured the Secretariat to adopt a perverse reading of Resolution 2231—rejected by 3 JCPOA Participants, which is the polar opposite of the clear affirmation by the Security Council “that conclusion of the JCPOA marks a fundamental shift in its consideration of this issue," Zarif reiterated.

In spite of our strong and legitimate objections to the historic mistreatment of Iran by the Security Council—particularly throughout 8 years of aggression by Saddam Hussein, as well as in the course of the unnecessary nuclear crisis—Iran showed its good faith by engaging in negotiations to reach a diplomatic solution as called for by all Security Council Resolutions on the nuclear issue, he said.

"In spite of all this, our remedial measures have until now had no impact on the IAEA’s monitoring and verification of our peaceful nuclear program, thereby making any proliferation risks irrelevant. Indeed, Iran’s peaceful nuclear program remains subject to the 'most robust' inspection regime in history. From 2016 through 2019, over 92 percent of the Agency’s total comparable global inspections were carried out in Iran," Zarif stressed.

"The United States has carried out numerous acts of armed aggression against Iran and its neighbors; invaded our neighbors 3 times in the last 3 decades; milked the region of its resources through destabilizing arms sales; systematically supported terrorists and provided material support for crimes against humanity in Yemen. The peoples of our region have had enough of the malign US presence, and demand its termination. The bitter irony here is that most Americans also want their troops returned home, where they belong," he said.