Despite sanctions, Iran seeking to join UN Security Council 

By mailto:secretary@haaretz.co.il Shlomo Shamir
April 13, 2008
Haaretz
Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974156.html


Three pending Security Council resolutions against Iran, some calling for sanctions, have not stopped the country from seeking a non-permanent seat at the council, causing some UN members to worry about the council's reputation. 

Iran is seeking to join the Security Council (SC) for two years in 2010-2012 as a representative of Asia, replacing Indonesia. 

Diplomats and commentators say that the Security Council's status is deteriorating and its prestige is crumbling. 

The Security Council is paralyzed, Italy's UN ambassador Marcello Spatafora said. It is becoming irrelevant. 

Spatafora expressed the growing frustration with the council's function among veteran diplomats and commentators at UN headquarters, many of whom still have difficulty accepting Libya as a council member. 

Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman wrote in an article in the Daily News that Libya does not fill the criteria required of a new tenant wishing to buy an apartment in a respectable Manhattan building. Yet it was accepted as a member of the Security Council, he wrote. 

Japan, which also is contending for the Asia seat, is likely to beat Iran and receive the position. Japan is not only a central and respected UN member, but also contributes the largest sum, after the United States, to the UN budget. 

The fact that Iran, a member state described as an objectionist, thinks it deserves representation in a leading UN body that has imposed sanctions on it is such shameless impudence on its part, as well as an indication of the decline in the council's status, a Western ambassador told Haaretz. 

The current non-permanent membership worries the member states, who fear that the only UN body with the authority to impose sanctions and use its strength is losing its influence.