UN restores voting rights of Iran as it pays off overdue membership fees: Report

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Sunday restored Iran's right to vote in the organisation after the latter paid off its overdue membership fees. Tehran cleared the debts from Iranian assets frozen in South Korea, said Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN, as quoted by Sputnik. The voting rights will resume on Monday after the completion of the transaction.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, as an active member of the United Nations, has always been committed to paying its membership dues on time and we have proven this in action," Iran envoy to UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, told Mehr News Agency.

The envoy accused the US of its inability to pay the fee for two consecutive years. "Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, we face the problem of paying your membership fee due to the imposition ab brutal and unilateral US sanctions against Iran," Takht-Ravanchi claimed. It is to mention that the UN withdrew Iran's right to vote in the UNGA in 2021 on delinquency to pay membership fees standing at $18.4 million.

Iran accuses US of failing to clear dues, pays UN with assets frozen in South Korea

Iran faced an identical situation in June when it paid its dues to regain its voting rights at the UN. Nevertheless, this time Iran blamed the US for its failure to meet the membership fee payment deadline.

Notably, the release of foreign frozen funds to Iran require US' approval, which was revoked after Washington imposed economic sanctions on Tehran in 2018 after the ex-US president Donald Trump exited from the negotiations encompassing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, which was signed in Vienna in 2015 between the P5+1 countries, including China, Russia, UK Germany, and the US. Iran since then had breached the provisions of the nuclear deal, raising serious concerns over its intentions. 

South Korea, on Friday, paid off Iran's due of $18 million through Tehran's frozen funds in South Korea "in active cooperation with related agencies such as the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the United Nations Secretariat," the Iranian Finance Ministry informed, as reported by the Middle East Monitor.

This comes after Iran repeatedly demanded the release of $7 billion funds "held hostage" by Seoul banks under US-levied sanctions on Iran. However, South Korea did not comment on the same.

(Image: AP)