UN chief under pressure from western states to sideline Russia at UNGA

By Al Mayadeen Net
Source: Agencies
18 Sep 2022 12:41

Russian officials are running out of patience with the US' filtering of visa issuances to take part in the upcoming high-level meeting at the UN General Assembly.

UN Chief pressured over visa issuance for Russian delegates at UNGA

Russian Deputy Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy told sources on Sunday that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is under "immense pressure" from the West in the face of the staleness of the US in issuing visas for the remaining Russian delegates to attend the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, expected to take place between September 20-26 in New York.

"The special military operation in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the long-standing problem of the UN Secretariat and the organization of its system," said Polyanskiy to news reporters, adding that there is a dominance of Western states representatives "in the leadership of international officials."

"In this regard, the UN Secretary-General is under immense pressure from Western countries, which, in addition to promoting their unbalanced agenda through their representatives, do not hesitate to put pressure on the Secretariat, including through the Secretary-General, with their voluntary contributions, the volumes of which are comparable to mandatory," Polyanskiy said.

The Russian envoy stressed that Russia has been struggling with this problem for a long time, but progress is slow, and the geographical distribution of posts is related to the size of contributions "and there are no quick solutions to be found here."

Even though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his delegation have received visas, it is expected for the remaining of the Russian delegation to receive US visas to attend the UNGA, the Russian diplomat said.

According to him, the delays in visas are causing serious organizational and logistic issues for the entire delegation. Many delegates were either denied visas or were given them so late that participation in the event lost its meaning.

"Washington is openly using the issuance of visas as a 'filter' to prevent not only Russians from entering the UN platform, but representatives of a whole group of states whose 'guilt' lies only in the desire to pursue a sovereign and independent policy," the Russian diplomat said.

Within the framework of the previous 76th session of the UN General Assembly, practically none of these meetings could do without "artificial difficulties created by the US authorities," he added.

Polyanskiy noted that, according to the UN Headquarters Agreement, the prompt issuance of visas to any persons traveling to events under the auspices of the world organization is a direct responsibility of the US as the host country.

"Thus, the actions of the US authorities in relation to the Russian delegates are a gross and obvious violation of the provisions of the Agreement, which, at the same time, are of a continuing, systemic and demonstrative nature," Polyanskiy said.

The Russian envoy to the UN stressed that Russia will insist that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launch arbitration against the US due to frequent problems with issuing visas to Russian diplomats.

"There have been a lot of violations. Our problems with visas and illegally confiscated diplomatic property have remained unresolved for the sixth year. Restrictions on movement have an even longer history," Polyanskiy said.

According to him, all the "reasonable and limited timeframes" set by the UN General Assembly for eliminating these problems have long passed, "however, the Secretary-General, unfortunately, has not yet begun the arbitration procedure."

"He [Guterres] has a mandate for this from the General Assembly. We will continue to insist on its implementation," Polyanskiy said.