Six African countries have lost their right to vote in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.
The countries – Libya, the Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, South Sudan and Zimbabwe – were barred because they are yet to pay their dues.
The UN also banned Iran from the votes.
Three more countries – Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia – will be allowed to continue to vote despite missing dues payments, because they sufficiently demonstrated that they are incapable of paying.
Guterres wrote a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir of Turkey that the countries in arrears to the UN will have their UNGA voting rights suspended in accordance with the UN Charter.
The Charter stipulates the suspension of voting rights if a member state fails to pay its fees for more than two years, the report said.
Under the article, a member-state in arrears in the payment of its dues in an amount that equals or exceeds the contributions of two preceding years can lose its vote in the General Assembly.
Iran owes $16.2m more than any other country and has blamed it on the U.S. which sanctioned the Islamic Republic from paying its required contribution to the UN.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the funds designated for UN payments are frozen in two South Korean banks, due to the U.S. sanctions.
He said the Islamic Republic has a total of $7bn in those banks.
Khatibzadeh demanded that the UN guarantee the payments are safely transferred without using U.S. banks.
“Given that the United States has encroached on Iran’s international assets before, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists that the UN not use an American intermediary bank to receive our country’s membership fee.
”Alternatively, this organization guarantee the financial transfer channel,” Khatibzadeh said.