Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Iran acknowledges concern of developing nations about UN reform plan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 2, IRNA
Iran-UN-Khatami
President Mohammad Khatami on Saturday acknowledged concern of the developing nations to UN reform blueprint.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Khatami said that the UN reform should guarantee collective decision making for international community taking into account opinion of the developing states in administration of the world body.

President Khatami said that the blueprint included general concepts such as "sense of responsibility to protect..." which provides the big powers with pretext to proceed with actions in line with their hegemonic objectives.

Khatami lauded Annan's initiatives and efforts to lay out his reform agenda to enable the world body succeed in the face of new challenges of the era.

He hoped that the proposed reform plan will be unanimously approved by the UN member states to secure the general interest and tackle the common concerns.

The president said that modern world, more than any time before, is in dire need of understanding and common determination to overcome the threats facing all countries.

"The crucial role of international bodies such as UN is to promote justice in international relations to guarantee the world security.

"In fact, if a better world is desired, peace should be established. Meanwhile, to promote sustainable peace, efforts should be made in this respect on basis of justice," added the message.

President Khatami noted that justice can only be materialized in the communities by the people enjoying high respect and gifted with natural blessings.

"According to the presented blueprint, today the threats are more than ever interconnected and threat against one is actually taken as a threat against all. Vulnerability of both the strong and the weak has never been revealed so far as clear as today."
President Khatami said, "Your excellency's blueprint on UN reform has been focused on Article 51 of the UN charter which could not satisfy aspirations of the developing nations so far and their need to a just peace, international security and sustainable development.

"What has been overlooked in this report, is the threat posed to the international community by the arsenals of the world big powers producing weapons of mass destruction.

"Given that terrorism is a manifestation of the most detrimental phenomenon, fundamental and multifaceted campaign should be launched against it and at the same time the big powers should not be given an opportunity to trample upon human rights and national sovereignty rights of the independent states under a variety of pretexts," said President Khatami.

Khatami hoped that administration of the world body should deal with greed and hegemony of the big powers taking advantage of provisions of the UN Charter which unfortunately did not provide he developing nations with a say in decision making.

"The nations and governments seeking justice and freedom will certainly stand by you in such a campaign to ensure that the international relations will be based on justice, ethics, equality and human respect," he concluded.

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