Seven Member States, including Iran, have lost their voting rights in the General Assembly because of unpaid arrears, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Jan. 18.
The UN Charter provides for the suspension of such voting rights when a Member State’s arrears reach or exceed the amount due for the previous two years.
The other six Member States whose voting rights have been suspended are Niger, Libya, Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan and Zimbabwe, Guterres noted in a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish national.
The letter clearly lists the amounts that each of the seven members must pay to regain their voting rights, but does not list the total amount owed by each. Iran, for example, must pay at least $16.2 million to regain its voting rights.
The U.N. budget is about $3.2 billion a year, and peacekeeping operations are budgeted separately at about $6.5 billion.
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