US faces criticism in UNSC for convening meeting on Iran protests

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 6 (APP)::The United States came in for criticism for convening an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Friday to discuss the recent protests in Iran, as some members of the 15-nation body said it was an internal matter for Teheran.
Russia led the round of criticism, accusing the US of “busing” the platform of the Council by calling the session over what it described as a purely internal issue.
“Today we are witnessing once again how the US is abusing the platform of the Security Council,” Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said at the tense meeting in New York.
“If we follow your logic, then we should have meetings of the Security Council after the events in Ferguson (US state of Missouri) or after the dispersal by forces of the Occupy Wall Street movement in Manhattan,” Nebenzia said.
The US Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said Iran is “on notice,” after listing what she referred to as slogans chanted by Iranian protesters.
“The Iranian regime’s contempt for the rights of its people has been widely documented for many years,” Haley said, adding that the United States stood “unapologetically with those in Iran who seek freedom for themselves, prosperity for their families, and dignity for their nation. We will not be quiet. No dishonest attempt to call the protesters “puppets of foreign powers” will change that.”
France’s Ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre said the protests do not threaten international peace and security, in what may be an implicit criticism of the United States.
“We must be wary of any attempts to exploit this crisis for personal ends, which would have the diametrically opposed outcome to that which is wished,” Ambassado Delattre said.
“However worrying the events of the last few days in Iran may be, they do not constitute per se a threat to international peace and security.”
Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo told the Security Council that his government has “hard evidence” that recent protests in Iran were “very clearly directed from abroad.”
Khoshroo also said the United States had abused its power as a permanent member of the Security Council by calling for a meeting to discuss the protests. “It is unfortunate that despite the resistance on the part of some of its members, this Council has allowed itself to be abused by the current US administration in holding a meeting on an issue that falls outside the scope of its mandate,” he added.
Sweden’s representative Irina Schoulgi expressed “reservations” about the timing of the meeting.
Discussing the domestic situation of Iran at the Council “does not help resolve the domestic issue of Iran,” said China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wu Haitao.
Other delegates shared that sentiment, including Bolivia’s representative, who said that the Council was witnessing a blatant attempt to push forward issues that did not fall within its purview, while the representative of Equatorial Guinea added that issues related to human rights must be dealt with in the relevant forums established by the United Nations, including the Human Rights Council and the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the General Assembly.
However, Bitish Ambassador Matthew John Rycroft stressed that no one had forced Iran onto the agenda, rather, the Council was empowered through Article 34 to investigate any dispute that might give rise to international friction. Too often, Iran’s security interests were pursued in a way that destabilized others, he said, pointing out that those regional activities threatened international peace and security.
Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador, responded to the point made by his British counterpart. The references heard today regarding Article 34 of the Charter were completely inappropriate and it was unacceptable to use bogus pretexts to include internal issues in the Council’s agenda, he said, stressing that the Council should not be involved in destabilizing Iran.