Iran will preside over the United Nations arms control forum this month, despite the fact that it is under U.N. sanctions for illicit nuclear activities and routinely supplies arms to the terrorist organization Hezbollah in violation of international law.

The U.N.’s annual Conference on Disarmament, which Iran is slated to lead from May 27 to June 23, is the organization’s primary multilateral forum for negotiating arms control agreements.

The forum has given way to major international treaties on nuclear non-proliferation, prohibitions on chemical weapons, and bans on nuclear tests. …

U.N. officials say Iran is simply the next country in rotation for the conference chair slot, according to UN Watch.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said Ambassador Rice would not attend any meeting of the disarmament conference presided over by Iran in a statement Monday evening.