ambassador to Washington with only eight countries supporting Iran and then, three days later, approving the annual condemnation of Iran’s human rights conduct by the widest margin yet.a
The two votes showed the Islamic Republic very isolated and with few friends in the world any longer. In recent weeks, Iran has been battered by the US charges that it plotted the murder of the Saudi ambassador, by a report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) laying out the case that it appears to be working to make nuclear weapons and by a report from the UN human rights rapporteur listing all the violations of human rights standards that have been reported to him.
The General Assembly votes showed those have taken a toll on Iran’s international standing.
In the first vote on the assassination plot, a mere eight countries stood with Iran in the 193-member General Assembly. Not even a solitary Muslim-majority country stood with Iran.
In the second vote on human rights Monday, 31 UN members voted with Iran against the critical resolution. That was the smallest number ever to support Iran. Many countries have over the years supported Iran on the human rights resolution because they oppose the practice of singling out countries for criticism on their human rights record. Many of them fear that they may be singled out some day.
On the assassination plot vote, the stunningly small support for Iran may reflect the fact that it is diplomats who vote in the UN and many may have felt personally offended at a threat to the life of a fellow diplomat.
Iran supporters pointed out that the assassination resolution has no punitive impact. But no General Assembly resolution does. Only Security Council resolutions are legally enforceable.
Also, the fact that the resolution was only advisory—like the annual human rights resolutions—did not stop Iran from fighting both tooth and nail.
Iran’s supporters noted that the assassination resolution did not say outright that Iran plotted the assassination. That is correct. But the resolution cited Iran by name three times, and no other country was named. Iran proposed an amendment to delete the references to Iran in the resolution. The General Assembly did not budge.
The vote on the assassination resolution was 106 in favor and 9 opposed, with 40 members abstaining and 38 not voting.
The nine opposed were Iran, fellow outcast North Korea, neighbor Armenia, one African state, Zambia, and five Latin American buddies—Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Curiously, Syria did not support Iran. It may have figured it was in too much trouble already and did not want to antagonize anyone, so it abstained.
Usually, Iran’s neighbors support it for fear of antagonizing Tehran. But not this time. Only one neighbor supported Iran—Armenia, which is Iran’s sole Christian neighbor and thus the one that doesn’t need to fear Iran backed Shia rebels. Armenia is also very dependent on Iran since its relations with neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan are sour and Iran provides its main route to the outside world.
The Islamic Republic was so stunned by the outcome that it played down the UN resolution. For example, the Fars news agency, with close ties to the Pasdaran, ran a story that led on Cuba’s opposition to the resolution and quoted from its ambassador’s objections. Only in the seventh paragraph of an eight-paragraph story did Fars tell readers the resolution had passed!
On the human rights resolution, the vote was 86-32 with 59 abstentions. This vote was taken in the General Assembly’s Third Committee. But since the committee is comprised of all 193 UN members, the final vote in the General Assembly proper, to be taken next month, should not differ significantly.
The 86 votes against Iran were the highest since the UN resumed annual votes on Iran’s human rights compliance in 2003. The 32 votes backing Iran was 40 percent less than the average of 51 votes it has received in past years.
Here are the votes over the last decade, showing the number of yea votes, nay votes and abstentions.
2011 86-32-59
2010 78-45-59
2009 74-48-59
2008 69-54-58
2007 73-55-55
2006 70-48-55
2005 75-50-43
2004 71-54-55
2003 68-54-51
Regime criticism of the outside world for the last two weeks has focused almost entirely on the report criticizing Iran’s nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The regime knows that its nuclear program has broad public support, so it is easier to defend itself against “foreign bullies.” But the allegation that Iran was plotting an assassination and most of the world agreed with the allegation was tougher to defend and best ignored.
Still, it was a surprise that the resolution, which was pressed by Saudi Arabia, wasn’t postponed. The two men accused in the plot have been indicted, but the trial isn’t expected to be held until early next year. Calls to table the resolution until after the trial would be logical and fair. But the UN majority still pushed ahead.
Iran’s main defense was a strong offense—taking out after the United States. Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee argued that the US government “has supported acts of terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran in which many Iranians, including its diplomats, were victims of such acts, according to existing hard evidence.” He didn’t name any Iranian diplomats assassinated by the United States.
Khazaee also said the resolution was sponsored by the United States. He completely ignored Saudi Arabia’s primary role. Clearly, he was fighting to mobilize an anti-American vote rather than a pro-Iranian one.
It was the final paragraph of the resolution that tightened the noose and told Tehran what it was expected to do. Playing off the fact that Iran denies any role in the alleged plot and refuses to assist US investigators, that final paragraph said the General Assembly “calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to comply with all of its obligations under international law, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, particularly with respect to its obligations to provide law enforcement assistance, and to cooperate with States seeking to bring to justice all those who participated in the planning, sponsoring, organization and attempted execution of the plot to assassinate the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
