"The United States led a chorus of condemnation Tuesday as Syria assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N.-linked Conference on Disarmament, calling it a 'travesty' that a regime guilty of using chemical weapons against its own people should preside over the very body that created to Chemical Weapons Convention.
The U.S. and other Western democracies signaled a range of steps in response to the regime's four-week long presidency of the Geneva-based CD, including downgrading representation and using the platform to highlight testimonies of survivors of chemical attacks in Syria.
'Today marks a sad and shameful day in the history of this body,' said U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, moments after his Syrian counterpart, Edin Aala, called on member states to be cooperative and to avoid politicizing the session.
'Simply put, it is a travesty that the Syrian regime – which continues to indiscriminately slaughter its own people with weapons banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention – should presume to preside over this body,' Wood continued...
Although not a U.N. subsidiary body, it is serviced by the U.N., and its budget is included in that of the U.N.
American taxpayers account for more than one-fifth of the U.N.'s operating budget..."