{"id":27641,"date":"2021-11-19T04:48:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T04:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=27641"},"modified":"2021-11-19T04:48:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T04:48:58","slug":"iran-slams-use-of-sanctions-as-blind-instruments-to-pressure-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/iran-slams-use-of-sanctions-as-blind-instruments-to-pressure-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Slams Use of Sanctions as \u2018Blind Instruments\u2019 to Pressure Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior Iranian diplomat has slammed the use of sanctions as \u201cblunt and blind instruments\u201d to exert pressure on world states, saying reforms are needed to prevent the United Nations\u2019 Security Council [UNSC] from resorting to embargos that merely punish an entire nation but fail to contribute to international peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of sanctions as blunt and blind instruments has raised fundamental ethical questions about whether sufferings inflicted on vulnerable groups is a legitimate means of exerting pressure on the targeted country,\u201d Iran\u2019s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said in an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said certain Security Council sanctions had been used in the past only to collectively punish an entire nation, without any actual positive impact on the maintenance of international peace and security, emphasizing that enforcement measures must be applied only as a last resort.<\/p>\n

Sanctions, Takht-Ravanchi added, \u201cmust be applied very rarely, in an actually smart and targeted manner, with limited scope and duration, and only when all \u2018measures not involving the use of armed force\u2019 are exhausted and have truly \u2018proven to be inadequate\u2019 to \u2018maintain or restore international peace and security\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranian official said the Security Council\u2019s increasing deficiencies had \u201cresulted in its legitimacy and credibility crisis as well as its serious trust and confidence deficit, making its reform inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal of the Security Council\u2019s reform must be to address all its current challenges and deficiencies and to evolve the Council into a truly representative, effective, transparent, accountable and above all, rules-based body,\u201d the Iranian diplomat said.<\/p>\n

He said the ongoing attempts focused on the Council\u2019s enlargement, equating it with its reform and efficiency, but this cannot continue at the expense of neglecting or underestimating other issues.<\/p>\n

Takht-Ravanchi stressed the importance of considering the Council\u2019s enlargement as only one out of many objectives in reforming the body, saying, \u201cImproving the Council\u2019s working methods and accountability and ensuring that all its decisions are taken in full accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations and international law are in no way less important than the Council\u2019s enlargement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council\u2019s reform must be considered as a comprehensive process, in which all five core issues under consideration must be treated equally, discussed thoroughly, and addressed in a package as they are interlinked and, as a whole, are greater than the sum of their parts. Therefore, any selective approach must be avoided,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n

He said Iran attached great importance to ensuring \u201cequitable representation\u201d in an expanded council and strongly believed this could not be realized only through safeguarding \u201cgeographical representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranian ambassador criticized the West\u2019s strong presence and influence in the Council, saying three members of the body have veto power, \u201cwhile the main regions are poorly represented in terms of both the number as well as privileges, including veto power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means inequality \u2018among the regions\u2019\u2026 The existing inequalities must therefore be addressed both \u2018among\u2019 and \u2018within\u2019 the regions as they are both necessary and complementary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Iranian diplomat voiced Iran\u2019s support for addressing historical injustice towards the developing world, particularly Africa, in ensuring equitable regional representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also fully support ensuring equal opportunities for each State within a given region, which, inter alia, can be done through limiting chances for those who have served more in the Council and, instead, provide more advantages to those who have never served in the Council or served lesser,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said a combination of factors like population, economic power and regional position could play a role in achieving such a goal.<\/p>\n

Takht-Ravanchi rejected as unacceptable any reform that serves the interests of only certain regions or a few states, stressing the need to seriously avoid any proposal that would \u201cliterally deepen the current imbalances or reduce the equal chance for states to become a Council member or contradict such intrinsic principles as sovereign equality and equal rights of states, transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran backs reforms to the Council\u2019s working methods that would ensure that it acts \u201cin full compliance with international law, particularly the UN Charter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Takht-Ravanchi further pointed to the Council\u2019s political and moral responsibility to act properly and responsibly and said its members must avoid taking decisions based on their own national interests or that of the geopolitical or geographical groups they belong to \u201cbut based on the common interests of the entire membership of the Organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council must never be used as a tool to pursue national political interests and agendas. The Council is responsible before the Member States on behalf of whom it acts and must therefore remain accountable to them,\u201d the Iranian diplomat stated. \u201cThe Council shall also not consider issues which do not fall within its purview or are conferred by the Charter to other UN organs, and in particular it must stop encroaching upon the functions and powers of the General Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warned that making hasty decisions or setting artificial deadlines for its work will be counter-productive, saying any possible decision, procedural or substantive, at any stage must be adopted only by consensus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also do not support text-based negotiations at this stage. Moreover, changing the rules or format of the process or its informal nature seems to be unconstructive and must therefore be avoided,\u201d Takht-Ravanchi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A senior Iranian diplomat has slammed the use of sanctions as \u201cblunt and blind instruments\u201d to exert pressure on world states, saying reforms are needed to prevent the United Nations\u2019 Security Council [UNSC] from resorting to embargos that merely punish an entire nation but fail to contribute to international peace. \u201cThe use of sanctions as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27643,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27641\/revisions\/27643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}