Envoy Views Vetoed UNSC Resolution as New Failure of US

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s accredited ambassador to Myanmar Mohsen Pak Ayeen said that the double veto of the US proposed draft UN Security Council resolution by Russia and China is viewed as a fresh failure for Washington’s foreign policy.“The development reveals that the United States is not able to persistently impose its views on the world community,” the diplomat stressed.

“While the United States introduced Myanmar as a threat to global peace merely due to the human rights conditions in that country and was seeking to pass its proposed resolution at the UN Security Council in a bid to impose sanctions on the Far East country, a majority of the UN member states, including Iran, ASEAN, China and Russia believed that the issue is political and poses no threat to the world peace,” the envoy continued.

Pak Ayeen further stated that Iran, similar to the majority of world countries, believes that Myanmar’s political issues should be resolved through talks within a peaceful process and away from any foreign intervention.

China and Russia rejected a UN Security Council resolution proposed by the United States demanding an end to what Washington alleges to be political repression and human rights violations in Myanmar.

The failed efforts by the US aimed to introduce the human rights conditions in Myanmar as a threat to global peace and security.

The vote was 9-3 in favor of the resolution, with South Africa joining China and Russia in the opposition. Indonesia, Qatar and the Republic of Congo abstained. While they were in the minority, China and Russia were able to kill the resolution because they have veto power as permanent members of the council.

The two argued that the UN’s most powerful body was not the proper forum for discussing the Southeast Asian nation because the country doesn’t threaten international peace.

Myanmar’s UN Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe thanked China and Russia and the countries that abstained. Had the resolution been adopted “it would have created a dangerous precedent,” he said.

Multiple vetoes in the Security Council are rare, raising questions about unity in the months ahead when the council will have to deal with difficult issues including Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region and the follow-up to sanctions against North Korea and Iran.

Myanmar’s junta took power in 1988.

“This resolution would have been a strong and urgently needed statement by the Security Council about the need for change in Burma,” said Acting US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, using Myanmar’s former name.

The last multiple veto was in 1989 by the US, Britain and France on a Panama resolution and the last double veto by China and the former Soviet Union was on a 1972 Mideast resolution.

“We find that attempts aimed at using the Security Council to discuss issues outside its view are unacceptable,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, noting that problems in Myanmar were being addressed by other UN bodies.

China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said he voted against the resolution for the same reason. The veto was only China’s fourth.