The “Zero Draft” of the report of the OEWG on developments in the
field of information and telecommunication in the context of
international security
General comments of the Islamic Republic of Iran
18 February 2021
The Islamic Republic of Iran appreciates the efforts by the OEWG Chairman
Ambassador Lauber and his team for preparing the zero draft report of the OEWG
which was circulated by the Chair on 19th January 2021. After last virtual
consultation in early December 2020, we were eagerly waiting to see how
different and very divergent views reflected in the text of the zero draft.
After careful examination of the zero draft in terms of structure as well as
substance, in our view, zero draft is still zero draft and not much different from
pre-draft upon which numerous virtual informal meetings called for delegations
to address their comments in order that the pre- draft to be further improved by
Chair.
Comments of our delegation despite the fact that we have documented all our
submissions, statements and proposals with much hope that our views would be
taken into account, have been disregarded. The same applies to the NAM
proposals which are belonging to a large group of States. Therefore, zero draft is
yet far from consensus, and all non-consensual parts are kept almost unchanged
in the text.
The zero draft text is thus, distant from its final expectations to be a balanced,
final consensual text. Too much unresolved issues remained that require
painstaking face to face and margin negotiation between delegations. So, how
chair would manage to finalize it and States under extreme time pressure with
just one month ahead to come up with final compromise outcome, would be a
5