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Oh sure, it’s a card-carrying, nuke-craving, extremist-loving member of the Axis of Evil. But Iran is also one of the United States’ closest allies in the United Nations when it comes to shutting down international agreements the Bush administration doesn’t like. A few of our government’s recent collaborations with its archnemesis:
- January 2006 The U.S. joins with Iran to deny consultative status to two gay rights groups at the U.N.
- September 2005 The U.S. and Iran try to water down a U.N. World Summit agreement affirming international responsibility to protect civilians from war crimes and genocide.
- March 2003 The U.S. sides with Iran in a failed attempt to delete a condemnation of the use of “custom, tradition, or religious consideration” to justify violence against women in a declaration by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.
- May 2002 The U.S. unsuccessfully teams up with Iran to edit out references to birth control and sex ed in a U.N. declaration on the rights of children.
- July 2001 The U.S. and Iran are the only countries to object to language in a special U.N. report on children that prohibits the death penalty for crimes committed by minors.
