Iran defends post as chair of UN Disarmament Conference

Iran defended its election as the rotating chair of the world's sole multilateral disarmament forum after the United States announced that its ambassador to the UN Conference on Disarmament would boycott any meeting led by Tehran. Iran will take over rotating presidency of the disarmament conference from May 27 until June 23. The conference is struggling to craft a deal on nuclear disarmament, preventing arms from spreading to outer space and halting the development of other weapons of mass destruction. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is a founding member of the United Nations," said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran's UN mission, Reuters reported Tuesday. "Its election to the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, as the most important disarmament negotiating body of the UN, is its right in accordance with the established practice and rules of procedure of this organ," he said. On Monday, Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the US mission at the United Nations was quoted as saying that the US will boycott meetings of the UN Conference on Disarmament when Iran takes over the body. "The United States will not be represented at the ambassadorial level during any meeting presided over by Iran," she stressed. Miryousefi denied that Iran was in violation of any of its treaty obligations. "Iran is a State Party to and in full compliance with all major treaties prohibiting the weapons of mass destruction negotiated within this body," he said. Those treaties include the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention, he said. "During its presidency, the Islamic Republic of Iran would focus on promoting the goals and objectives of the Conference on Disarmament through according the highest priority to nuclear disarmament and the total elimination of nuclear arsenals of the nuclear-weapon States in an irreversible, transparent and internationally verifiable manner," Miryousefi said. In relevant remarks on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi said Iran's representative in Geneva will continue its "strong and effective" presence in all discussions and debates on disarmament and arms control regardless of pressures. "We have active presence in all initiatives and all countries have acknowledged that Iran's presence in conferences on disarmament, arms control and global security and stability has been efficient and strong," Araqchi stated. "We will continue our presence," he underlined, adding that the pressures imposed by some parties and their absence from the meeting "is not important" to Iran.