The Arak IR-40 heavy water reactor in Iran. Photo: Nanking2012/Wikimedia Commons.

Iran is set to chair the upcoming United Nations Conference on Disarmament, despite the U.N. Security Council sanctions levied against the Islamic Republic for its suspected nuclear weapons program.

As a result, the U.S. said it would withdraw ambassadorial representation at the disarmament conference.

“Iran’s upcoming rotation as President of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is unfortunate and highly inappropriate,” Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said in a statement, according to Reuters.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based advocacy group that monitors the UN, also condemned Iran’s chairmanship.

“Any member state that is the subject of UN Security Council sanctions for proliferation—and found guilty of massive human rights violations— should be ineligible to hold a leadership position in a UN body,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, in a statement.