Iraq to chair the UN disarmament conference?

[humus_sapiens]

Another tragicomedy in the UN
-hs (8-o)

From www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=15817

JORDAN TIMES 14-15 Feb.'03:
"Iraq is due to become president of the conference on
disarmament on March 17"
"French Ambassador Hubert de la Forterelle told Reuters that
Western countries were uniterd in viewing Iraq's chairmanship
as 'inconcievable'."
---
EXCERPTS:
GENEVA (R) - A senior United States arms control official declared on
Thursday that it was "unacceptable" for Iraq to take its turn in presiding
over the main United Nations disarmament negotiating forum.
Stephen Rademaker, the US assistant secretary of state for arms control, told the conference Iraq remained "in breach" of Security Council resolutions ordering it to disclose its weapons of mass destruction and cooperate with UN arms inspectors.

Iraq is due to become president of the conference on disarmament on March 17... The post rotates monthly in alphabetical order among its 66 members, who take decisions by consensus.

. . .

Naji Abid, a member of Iraq's delegation, told Reuters Television: "It is our presidency, we will practice it."

. . .

Depriving a country of chairing the conference on disarmament, a right enshrined under the rules of procedure, would set a "very serious precedent," he told the talks.

The Iraqi also accused the United States of pursuing "double standards and selectivity"...

. . .

French Ambassador Hubert de la Forterelle told Reuters that Western countries were united in viewing Iraq's chairmanship as "inconceivable".

Diplomatic moves were under way to put pressure on Iraq's delegation to step aside, according to the French envoy.

[humus_sapiens]

This can be compared only to Lybia chairing the UN Human Rights Commission. Unfortunately, both farses are true.

[khouli]

Iraq Drops UN Disarmament Conference Chairmanship

Feb. 14
— By Irwin Arieff
—
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq on Friday bowed out of its controversial chairmanship of the international Conference on Disarmament, a post it was due to assume next month, the United Nations said.

Baghdad had been scheduled to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament on March 17 and keep it for about a month.

But the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations wrote the conference to say it would not be doing so, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

No reason was given.

Just a day earlier, a senior U.S. arms control official said it would be "unacceptable" for Iraq to take its turn presiding over the main U.N. disarmament negotiating forum.

Stephen Rademaker, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control, told a conference meeting in Geneva that Iraq remained in breach of Security Council resolutions ordering it to disclose its weapons of mass destruction and cooperate with U.N. arms inspectors.

"Iraq's assuming the presidency of the CD (Conference on Disarmament) is unacceptable to the United States. It should be unacceptable to all supporters of the CD, as it threatens to discredit this institution," Rademaker said.
French ambassador Hubert de la Forterelle, also speaking in Geneva on Thursday, told Reuters that Western countries were united in viewing Iraq's chairmanship as "inconceivable" and diplomatic moves were under way to put pressure on Iraq's delegation to step aside.

But Naji Abid, a member of Iraq's delegation, told Reuters Television: "It is our presidency, we will practice it."
Depriving a country of chairing the Conference on Disarmament, a right enshrined under the rules of procedure, would set a "very serious precedent," Abid told the forum.

This year would have marked the first time Iraq took the president's chair -- a position which rotates in alphabetical order -- since it joined the forum in 1996 under a negotiated agreement which brought in a total of 23 countries including Israel and North Korea.

Others in the next round of conference presidents are India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland and Israel.

Had it not withdrawn, Iraq would have led the commission from March 17 to March 28 and then, after a recess, from May 12 to May 25.

The 66-nation Conference on Disarmament was set up by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979 to consolidate the work of several Geneva-based arms negotiating bodies. The conference has negotiated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and steered talks on the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

This year, countries agree that the next step in nuclear disarmament should be a ban on producing atomic bomb-making fissile material, such as highly enriched uranium or plutonium. But the forum has been blocked by wrangling over whether a new treaty covering weapons in space is needed.

Copyright 2003 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/re...030214_699.html

[LionOfLoyalty]

Iraq backed out? Thank goodness for small mercies.