April 17, 2006
Under threat of United Nations Security Council sanctions for its own nuclear program, Iran has been elected to a vice-chair position on the U.N. Disarmament Commission, whose mission includes preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.The commission's deliberations began last Monday and are scheduled to continue until April 28. On the first day of the commission meeting, Iran along with Uruguay and Chile was elected as one of three vice-chairs.
It happened on the same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised his people "good news" about the country's nuclear program.
The following day, Iran announced that it had managed to enrich uranium, a key ingredient in the production of a nuclear bomb.
Remember, this is the same Iran that secretly engaged in a nuclear development program while denying its existence.
Of all the claims that Iran made last week about its nuclear program, a one-sentence assertion by its president has provoked such surprise and concern among international nuclear inspectors they are planning to confront Tehran about it this week.The assertion involves Iran's claim that even while it begins to enrich small amounts of uranium, it is pursuing a far more sophisticated way of making atomic fuel that American officials and inspectors say could speed Iran's path to developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran has consistently maintained that it abandoned work on this advanced technology, called the P-2 centrifuge, three years ago. Western analysts long suspected that Iran had a second, secret program — based on the black market offerings of the renegade Pakistani nuclear engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan — separate from the activity at its main nuclear facility at Natanz. But they had no proof.
Then on Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Tehran was "presently conducting research" on the P-2 centrifuge, boasting that it would quadruple Iran's enrichment powers. The centrifuges are tall, thin machines that spin very fast to enrich, or concentrate, uranium's rare component, uranium 235, which can fuel nuclear reactors or atom bombs.
What next – selecting Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt to run the UN program to encourage sexual abstinence?
Posted by: Greg at
11:57 AM
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So why do you blame the United Nations
For me "the U N" should be criticized for what U N organisations like UNICEF, UNDP or the U N Secretary General do. They act on behave of the UN. They make some of their own decisions. They are not merely tools of the UN member states.
Regarding the election of Iran to this U N commission, I would rather criticize those countries, who voted for Iran.
AFAIK every country has one vote. Every country sends some representatives to the U N and they vote according to their national preferences.
I think the UN are just the forum, like the US Senate. When you don’t like the results of a US Senate vote, I am sure you criticize the Senators who voted the wrong way. Or do you then also criticize the entire Senate, incl. those Senators who voted the way you wanted them to?
You could cut foreign aid to all countries who voted the wrong way or call in their ambassadors. That would be more effective than criticizing "the UN."
If you really don't like the U N, just pull out.
Put a notice on your blog and sign a petition that the U.S. should pull out of the U N. Or call for kicking the U N out of NYC, if you really think the UN does not serve your national interestes.
Posted by: Jorg at Mon Apr 17 20:44:18 2006 (XwSds)
When I first tried publishing the last comment by writing "U N" without the space, my comment was rejeced due to "questionable content: U N org"
Posted by: Jorg at Mon Apr 17 20:47:55 2006 (XwSds)
Posted by: Jorg at Mon Apr 17 20:52:17 2006 (XwSds)
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