UNITED NATIONS — Japan handily defeated Iran for a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, and Austria and Turkey edged out Iceland in secret-ballot voting Friday.
Iran — under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear program — received 32 votes from the U.N. members compared with 158 for Japan for the Asian seat.
Austria and Turkey beat Iceland in the battle for two nonpermanent European seats on the 15-member council in voting at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
The Security Council is the U.N. powerhouse with the ability to impose sanctions and dispatch peacekeepers.
The other two seats went to Mexico, which will represent Latin America, and Uganda, which will represent Africa; both ran unopposed.
General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said after the balloting that Austria received 133 votes, Turkey 151 votes, Uganda 181 votes and Mexico 185. Iceland, which had been considered by many to be a strong candidate until the recent economic crisis, received 87 votes.
Candidates must receive a two- thirds majority to win a seat.
“It’s a disappointment for us not to get more votes because, like other countries, we have gotten a lot of promises that have not been kept,” said Iceland’s foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir.
Asked whether she thought the U.K. freeze on Icelandic banks had affected the vote, she said, “It was not helpful what the British did, enforcing and activating a kind of terrorist law toward a small nation.”
Iran’s U.N. Mission released a statement after the election charging that the voting was affected by “unfair behavior and a false propaganda campaign by certain major powers.”
