UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Iraq will chair the United Nations' most important disarmament negotiating forum during the panel's May session.

At the rules-minded United Nations, it's not a country's status with international weapons inspectors, but the letters in its name which determine which member state chairs the Conference on Disarmament.

"The irony is overwhelming," a U.S. diplomat said.
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Iraq will take its turn as the head of the conference, a U.N. spokesman said, because of a "purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order."

Therefore, joining Iraq as the co-chair for the May 12-June 27 session in Geneva, Switzerland, will be Iran.

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