US Unilateralism Damaging UN Multilateralism: Iran’s Envoy

“Since the inception of the UN, multilateralism in and of itself has been a major achievement of the UN system. However, this important achievement is now under severe attack by the unilateral approaches of the United States,” Takht Ravanchi said in a statement addressing the Sixth Committee of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly On "The Rule of law at the National and International levels".

The full text of his statement is as follows:

Mr. Chairman,

The founders of the United Nations, drawing on lessons from the past to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, established an international legal order on the basis of sovereign equality of States and prohibition of the threat or use of force in international relations.

They opted for the path of multilateralism and peaceful settlement of disputes as a viable solution to end conflicts. Since the inception of the UN, multilateralism in and of itself has been a major achievement of the UN system. However, this important achievement is now under severe attack by the unilateral approaches of the United States.

US’ unilateralism has been manifested in the form of withdrawal from international treaties and international organizations; waging trade wars against countries; committing economic and medical terrorism in the form of imposing inhumane universal coercive measures to gain political objectives; threatening the International Criminal Court and its prosecutor; weaponizing its currency to abuse the international financial system; penalizing nations across the entire world for abiding by the Security Council resolutions; confiscating the assets of national banks; and violating its commitments toward the UN with the imposition of inhumane restrictions on the representatives of some Member States accredited to the UN. These are all examples of the vicious approach taken toward the international community which has seriously endangered rule of law at the international level.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, in an effort to defend its legitimate rights against this lawlessness, has opened two cases before the International Court of Justice. The Court’s unanimous provisional order requesting the U.S. to remove the obstacles created as a result of its actions and illegal decisions made following its withdrawal from the JCPOA, including the impediments imposed on the path of Iran’s trade in certain domains, was another clear testament to the illegality of the United States’ sanctions. However, the US Government, instead of complying with the binding decision of the main judicial organ of the UN, has intensified its coercive measures against my Country and its people.

Mr. Chairman,

Corruption represents a grave danger to all and threatens the prosperity of the peoples and the developments of their societies while undermining the rule of law. Corruption can only be defeated by sustained political will through a holistic and universal approach in line with the United Nations Convention against Corruption. To this end, we are committed to ensuring full, effective and balanced implementation of the Convention, in particular its provisions on asset recovery as a fundamental principle of the Convention, which have been alarmingly and unexpectedly underutilized.

By upholding the rule of law and in line with its commitment to the Convention, the Islamic Republic of Iran has made significant efforts both at the national and international levels to prevent and combat corruption. In this process, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the aim of improving efficiency in its laws and provisions to counter corruption, has amended the “Countering Money-laundering Act of 2008” and has finalized the draft bill on the conflict of interest.

Despite all these efforts, the Islamic Republic of Iran still faces certain challenges in preventing and combating corruption. Unilateral Coercive Measures have impaired the allocation of required resources in our fight against corruption.

The non-compliance of certain states in the effective cooperation of recovery of assets acquired illegally indicates the double standards as well as dubious and dishonest approaches in eradicating corruption which would only embolden corrupted criminals in continuing their malicious activities hence, undermining the rule of law at the national and international levels.

Despite these challenges, we would like to reiterate once again our commitment and decisive will to fight corruption effectively and responsibly. We are determined to confine these destructive impacts by initiating and developing efficient strategies in curbing and combating this menace as asserted by the Convention.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.