May 13, 2013

Welcome to bizzaroworld — Iran to preside over UN disarmament panel, FOX News

Anne Bayefsky

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/13/welcome-to-bizzaroworld-iran-to-preside-over-un-disarmament-panel/

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In case you didn't think the UN could get even more bizarre (and dangerous), try this one. Iran will soon become the President of the Conference on Disarmament. The Iranians rotate into the job for four weeks near the end of May. Their qualification for the position? Iran is the member state that comes next in the English alphabet after Indonesia. Iran will have the task of managing the 2013 Conference agenda, which includes "the cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament." On the one hand, since the mullahs running the country are engaged in a mad race to acquire nuclear arms, chairing a meeting on disarmament may be a bit of a struggle. On the other hand, the Conference just talks, and talking for its own sake is an Iranian art form. This isn't the first time that the Conference on Disarmament has faced similar controversy. In July 2011it was North Korea's turn to take the helm. North Korea took the appointment as a sign of approval. Its representative announced that the country was "very much committed to the Conference" and that "he would do everything in his capacity to move the Conference on Disarmament forward." So fast forward. We find an ever more aggressive North Korea sharing nuclear know-how with like-minded belligerents, such as Iran and Syria. The saddest part of this charade, therefore, is that these countries and their despotic leaders take sustenance from acquiring such formal trappings and basking in the accompanying diplomatic niceties. Bizarre, but not funny.