Statement by

Mr. Heidar Ali Balouji

First Counsellor

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

on behalf of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela

At the Seventh Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the Implementation of

the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA)

On Agenda Item 10 “AoB”

New York, 29 July 2021

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Mr. Chair,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of Belarus, Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, and my own country Iran.

Inclusivity and equal footing of the member states in participation in any UN event are overarching principles advocated by multilateral diplomacy and especially within the United Nations.

In a situation affected by Covid 19, we showed our utmost flexibility about the format and modalities of convening the BMS 7. And it was based on this understanding that we accepted hybrid and virtual formats along with the regular in-person meeting format to be utilized on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent. However, it is regrettable that due to the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the USA, some delegations were deprived of online contribution to the meeting. This is totally unacceptable and must be stopped.

Furthermore, this is yet another unfortunate example that hybridity cannot serve as an operation mode for the UN since it fails to provide equal and uninterrupted access of all Member States to the meetings.

 We informed the relevant authorities through different channels on time without any solution to remove this obstacle.

We put on the record the position of our delegations in rejecting the unilateral coercive measures and request you kindly to reflect our position in the final report of the meeting.

For this purpose, we would like to suggest the following language to be incorporated in the section III (E) of the meeting’s report:

“A group of states issued a statement highlighting the importance of inclusivity and equal footing of the member states in participation in any UN event and rejecting the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the USA, which deprived online contribution of some delegations. It specified that hybridity is an exception without any precedence and cannot serve as an operation mode for the UN since it fails to provide equal and uninterrupted access of all Member States to the meetings.”

Thank you.