Foreign desk: UN’s Mugabe Moment & Iran Problem

Before it was rescinded four days later, the World Health Organization appointed Robert Mugabe, the tyrant of Zimbabwe, as a goodwill ambassador. This, says Claudia Rosett at PJ Media, was one of those moments when the UN “decides to dignify a tyrant, or a tyranny, in ways so in-your-face perverse that it draws public attention, provokes highly embarrassing protest” and then “scuttles to back away.” But while the Mugabe debacle “will likely fade,” the world body continues to dignify Iran — which, under the UN Charter, which limits membership to “peace-loving states that respect human rights,” doesn’t belong there at all. So when will UN agencies “protest the presence on their own governing boards of Iran, ruled by one of the most repressive, predatory and brutal regimes on the planet?”