Statement by

Mr. Heidar Ali Balouji

First Counselor

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

On Rules of Procedure

At the second session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction

New York, 29 November 2021

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

Mr. President, 

I have taken the floor to explain the position of my delegation regarding the Rules of Procedure and its developments. 

At the outset, I would like to extend my delegation’s gratitude for all your efforts in leading the informal consultations on the RoP which have directed all of us on the track of success. 

My delegation has had a number of proposals, and we are delighted to see them reflected in the draft Rules of Procedure with the agreement of all. It is our earnest hope that the proposals are and will be in the best interest of the treaty to be elaborated along with its parties as well. In the meantime, we have also been especially flexible in this course. 

However, the issue which has raised a stalemate is of very crucial and qualitative importance. As explained time and again, we must try to solidify the basis of the future treaty. However, the current formulation of footnote no. 1 is not in line with this approach and can even have severe implications for the treaty as it links the membership of the treaty to the membership of the Arab League. Bearing this in mind, any change in the latter can most certainly affect the membership in the treaty itself. Furthermore, when the members to the Conference are enlisted in the same footnote, including another reference to specify the membership is clearly redundant.

Furthermore, we are working under the UN auspices, and there is no need to follow a controversial reference from another organization.

Having said that, while our original position was only to enlist the name of the regional parties invited to the conference, nevertheless, for the sake of flexibility and consistency, we did offer an alternative with the hope that other colleagues will also show flexibility and, thus, we will have the RoP on time.

The suggestion was to replace the reference to the IAEA document with a new phrase (See the General Assembly decision A/73/546).

This should have been a very good solution as it avoids the differences in the IAEA document. This decision is the founding document of our Conference, and it has a reference to the IAEA document. Our suggestion reasonably composed that reference in an indirect way. 

Last but not the least, pending the finalization of the Rules of Procedure, we believe that we can keep the latest version of the document distributed by your delegation on 28 November 2021 as this basis for future discussions on the only remaining issue. 

Mr. President,

I would like to kindly request that this statement be circulated as an official document and that it be duly reflected in the report of this session of the Conference. 

I thank you, Mr. President!