The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants denied that it was responsible for Lebanon’s failure to pay its contributions to the United Nations and, accordingly, depriving it of the right to vote in the body.
And the United Nations announced, in a statement on its website last week, that starting from January 17, 6 countries, including Lebanon, lost their voting rights in the General Assembly, due to the delay in paying dues to the organization’s operating budget.
Local newspapers in Lebanon held the concerned authorities, led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for this failure, noting that the amount owed by Lebanon is only regarding two million dollars, according to the organization’s statement.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended itself, and published a statement this followingnoon, Saturday, on its Twitter account, in which it said, “Several media reports unfairly held the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants responsible for Lebanon’s failure to pay its contributions to the United Nations and deny it the right to vote.”
She pointed out that Foreign Minister Abdullah Abu Habib conducted, for this purpose, several contacts, reviews and meetings with the concerned official authorities, to help transfer the necessary funds to the Lebanese missions abroad to pay contributions and arrears, noting that “the minister had previously received promises to quickly resolve the issue of transferring the necessary funds.” desired.”
1) The media office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued the following statement:
Several media reports unfairly held the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants responsible for Lebanon’s failure to pay its contributions to the United Nations and depriving it of the right to vote.— Mofa Lebanon (@Mofalebanon) January 21, 2023
And she said in the statement, “In order not to share responsibility for the reasons for the delay in transferring funds, for reasons outside the competence and scope of the ministry’s work, it has warned and continues to stress the necessity of immediate handling of this file due to its importance and Lebanon’s role in international and regional institutions.”
The organization’s decision comes according to Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations, which states that “a member of the United Nations who is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the organization shall not have the right to vote in the General Assembly if the value of the arrears is equal to the value of the contributions due from it in the preceding two full years or more.” on her”.
The resolution also states that “the exception is to allow the General Assembly of a member state to vote if it is convinced that the delay in payment arose from unacceptable reasons for the member state that contributed to its inability to pay.”
The organization’s decision, which was issued last week, included preventing 9 countries from voting, namely the Comoros, South Sudan, Dominica, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela and Lebanon.
However, the General Assembly allowed, according to a previous decision last October, with the exception of the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia, and these countries granted him the right to vote in the General Assembly until the end of the 77th session.
The United Nations had previously decided to suspend Lebanon’s right to vote in the General Assembly in January 2020, for reasons also related to the delay in paying membership contributions, but in the same month, following cooperation with the organization, Lebanon regained its right to vote following paying part of its debts owed to the organization.
