Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Some UNintentional International Irony

The UN just appointed Iran to the bureau overseeing the global arms control treaty.

You can't make this up.

FoxNews.com: When the UN wants to negotiate a global arms control deal, it turns to ... Iran

Critics say asking Iran to help craft a treaty aimed at stopping arms proliferation to terrorist groups and rogue states makes a mockery of the talks. Just two weeks ago, the UN Security Council accused Tehran of shipping arms to Syria, and Iran is also suspected of hiding illegal nuclear weapons facilities from international watchdogs.

“It defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers.”

- UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer

“Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told FoxNews.com.

Let's see - Libya was on the Human Rights Commission as Gaddafi was massacring his own people, Syria was similarly put on the UNESCO Human Rights Commission when it kicked off its own crackdown and massacre, and is still pushing to join the regular UN Human Rights Commission. Saudi Arabia is appointed to the UN Women's rights commission when they don't even let women drive. Now Iran, a top weapons smuggler and nuclear proliferator is on the Global Arms Treaty Bureau.

I know the soft power advocates keep pushing the position that putting a major issue violator on the commission that is supposed to punish or at least identify those issue violators is supposed to shame it into compliance with international norms, but that theory sure hasn't worked yet.

The UN has verily gone from tragedy to farce.

Even worse, the Obama Administration is eagerly participating in this charade:

The conference is taking place after the Obama administration moved in 2009 to support holding the event – reversing the position of the Bush administration, which opposed a UN General Assembly resolution launching the treaty process in 2006.

Just great. So, how's that smart diplomacy working for you lately?

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