Making a joke of the UN
September 25, 2008
National Post  
Original Source: https://mail.hudsonny.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=832934 \t _blank http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=832934
 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni -- who could soon be that country's prime minister -- says it would be absurd to elect Iran to a seat on the United Nation's Security Council, and she's right. But absurd is the UN's stock in trade. This is the world organization, remember, that ignores epic human rights abuses in places such as Darfur and Cuba, even as it passes endless resolutions slamming Israel. Ideas that are obviously ridiculous often strike the UN's collective brain trust as perfectly sensible.
Iran would be unsuitable as a UN Security Council member in so many ways, it's hard to keep count. First and foremost: it is currently the subject of the most
strenuous sanctions imposed by the Council on any nation, over its refusal to shut down its nuclear program or at least prove beyond all doubt the program's aims are entirely civilian and not military.
Even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- a branch of the UN -- has had it with Tehran. The IAEA, which has long been a proponent of appeasement, threw up its hands last week, declaring it had reached a dead end with the mullahs who govern the Islamic Republic. Iran's leaders refuse to answer any questions, even those about their nation's 30-year-old nuclear program under the former shah. On top of that, the IAEA has recently found evidence of foreign expertise in Iran's nuclear research program, something forbidden by both UN sanctions and international non-proliferation treaties. And Tehran refuses to say whether it has specialized high-precision explosives of a type commonly used to detonate nuclear warheads. The IAEA knows Iran once had such detonators and suspects it still may. After last week's IAEA report,
even tougher w sanctions should now follow. Putting Iran on the council now -- as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommended in his speech to the UN's General Assembly Tuesday -- would be akin to letting a criminal be his own judge, Ms. Livni said. Or giving lunatics the keys to the asylum.
The conflict of interest should be so self-evident that even the UN can recognize it. But recall that this is the organization whose human rights council once elected Libya to its presidency despite the litany of human rights abuses that government has perpetrated.
Putting Iran on the Security Council would also permit Iran to continue building ties with Russia, which has blocked the West's efforts to get tough with Tehran in recent years. China, another permanent veto-wielding member of the Security Council, also makes nice with Iran -- in large part to ensure access to the country's energy resources.
Beyond its quest for a nuclear bomb, Iran is unsuitable as a UN Security Council member because of its support of international terrorism and its constant threats to obliterate the Zionist entity -- meaning Israel. Iran remains a major source of money and weapons for some of the nastiest terror groups in the world, including al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The deadliest and most sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American vehicles in Iraq are Iranian-made. In an era in which terrorism remains perhaps the greatest threat to the world, it would be ridiculous to elect the world's foremost sponsor of terror to a body that fancies itself a bodyguard of global security.
Despite all this, we suspect there is a good chance Iran will win a place on the council in January when a seat for an Asian country comes open: Many Muslim nations will vote for Iran precisely because the nation's selection would rankle the United States and Israel.
Iran, in other words, would gain entry into the United Nations' most powerful body as an act of spite. It's hard to imagine a more perfect symbol of what has become of the UN.