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Lawmaker at House Foreign Affairs hearing criticizes U.N. for seating Iran on key committees
Summary
A lawmaker at a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing criticized the United Nations’ choice to seat Iran on panels tied to the nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty, women’s rights and counterterrorism, questioned inspection access and cited Iran’s record of rights abuses.
A lawmaker at a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing criticized the United Nations for selecting Iran to serve on panels tied to the nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty, women’s rights and counterterrorism, calling the appointments “beyond crazy.”
The lawmaker said the U.N. selection included placing Iran on the body responsible for the nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty and argued that the decision risked giving Iran improper access during inspections. “They selected Iran to serve on the board of nuclear nonproliferation treaty,” the lawmaker said, adding that such appointments read “like something out of the Babylon Bee or Hollywood.”
The lawmaker questioned whether international inspections — including those conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — could be used for intelligence gathering if Iran held influence over inspection priorities and access. He asked rhetorically who authorized the selection and called the broader pattern “the tip of the iceberg.”
He also objected to Iran’s reported placement on a U.N. committee shaping women’s‑rights priorities, noting that Iran enforces penalties against women for hijab violations and has detained women for those offenses. “This is the same regime whose idea on women’s rights is enforcing physical assault or detention for women who are caught without a hijab,” he said.
The lawmaker further said Iran has engaged in large‑scale repression of its own people, saying the regime had “slaughtered 10, 20, 30,000 of its own citizens” and imprisoned many others; he did not cite a specific source for those figures. He connected those human‑rights concerns to his objection to Iran’s placement on a U.N. counterterrorism committee, accusing Iran of supporting armed groups. “Iran is on the Committee for Counterterrorism, and they’re the chief operator for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis,” the lawmaker said, accusing Iran of providing targeting information and rewards.
The hearing record contains these statements as the lawmaker’s characterizations and accusations; the transcript does not include a response from the U.N., the IAEA, or any other party represented at the hearing. The committee did not record any formal vote or action on the statements during the portion of the transcript provided.
