In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful Mr. President, At the outset I regret to inform you that in light of the host's failure to issue visas to members of our delegation from the capital, particularly the Head of our Delegation, we were prevented from fully and properly participating in the consideration of the document. This constitutes a major failure on the part of the host. Our delegation therefore formally protests this situation.  With respect to the adoption of Declaration, the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is that the document is not balanced. Nevertheless, our delegation wishes to state that we will accept this document with following explanatory remarks, solely for the purpose of not obstructing consensus. In this regard we wish to place on record the following observations: First, we find it deeply puzzling and indeed a matter of grave concern that the consensus language drawn from paragraph 67 of the Kyoto Declaration, which has been reaffirmed on numerous occasions across various resolutions, has been omitted from this text. In this paragraph States “Recognize the fundamental role of effective international cooperation in preventing and combating crime and to this end, underline the importance of addressing, tackling and effectively responding to international challenges and barriers, in particular measures, that hinder such cooperation, and which are not consistent with the Charter of the United Nations and obligations under international law, and in this regard urge States, consistent with their international obligations, to refrain from applying such measures”.  As a case in point, Unilateral Coercive Measures that infringe the fundamental principles of international law and principles set forth within the Charter of the UN has impaired allocation of required resources to the fight against corruption in the international arena and has further hampered cooperation of Member States in this scourge, in particular in returning and recovering of asset and proceeds of crimes. Every effort should be made to ensure that international cooperation in the fight against corruption would not be jeopardized by this international wrongful act. The negative impact of the Unilateral Coercive Measures on international cooperation has already been expressed by the United Nations in the resolution 71/193 and in line with that, the Islamic Republic of Iran deems UCMs detrimental to a collective response to transnational crimes and expresses its grave concerns on the effects of such unlawful measures on the rule of law at regional and international levels. Therefore, the negative impact of UCMs on preventions and combating of all forms of crime should be appropriately reflected in Abu Dhabi declaration.   Mr. President, While this paragraph has been reaffirmed on numerous occasions across various resolutions, it was surprisingly omitted from this text. This omission constitutes a genuine and significant gap, and we believe it undermines the very foundation upon which our collective work is built. Second, and equally concerning, we note that certain elements, despite being contentious and lacking strong merit, have nonetheless been introduced into this document for the first time, without the support of a number of States Parties; namely the inclusion of "security" in the first paragraph, at the very last minute, as well as the use of the term "scam" which has no legal definition in the relevant documents, whereas the relevant conventions employ only the term "fraud" for such criminal behaviour. These elements carry no strong merit whatsoever and deserve no place in this document.  Third, we are of the firm view that the general and ambiguous reference to "human rights instruments" in paragraph 1 (former 4) is an inappropriate approach, given that not all provisions of these instruments bear relevance to this Congress, and the lack of clarity in this regard only complicates our discussions. This reflects our serious position at this juncture. We firmly believe that the views of all States, especially those views supported by previously agreed language and rational justification, deserve weight and attention.  Mr. President, These are the points that we place on record. We wish to underscore that the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to consider itself bound to recall these matters in future documents and deliberations, and we call upon all delegations to give them the attention they merit.  We ask that this statement be reflected in the report. I thank you.