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Atta Kenare via Getty
The Iranian economy is already suffering unilateral sanctions, imposed by the United States in 2018
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the United States was “facing defeat” in its decision to reimpose UN sanctions on his country, while European allies described the United States’ unilateral declaration as legally void.
Rouhani said in a televised speech that Iran “would respond with a crushing response to the violence from the United States.”
The Trump administration said the measures are being reimposed, under a mechanism included in the deal on Iran’s nuclear program, from which the United States withdrew.
Britain, France and Germany said the United States did not have the authority to implement such a measure.
The three countries, along with China, Russia and the United States, were parties to a landmark agreement signed with Iran in 2015 to curb its nuclear program.
But President Donald Trump, a critic of the deal signed under Obama, withdrew in 2018.
As a result, Iran has begun to backtrack on some of its commitments, including uranium enrichment, too much. She said it does not violate the agreement.
The United States said that Tehran should be punished, announcing that all UN sanctions that had been suspended would be reimposed – according to a mechanism approved in the agreement called “return” – and that the ban on conventional weapons in Iran would not end. October 18. Next.
But Washington’s statement was rejected by almost all members of the UN Security Council, and the council took no further action. The impact of the decision is not yet clear.
Reuters on Sunday quoted an anonymous senior US official as saying that Washington will, starting Monday, impose sanctions on more than 20 people and entities related to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and its conventional weapons.
How did Iran respond?
In his speech, Rouhani said: “The United States is close to certain defeat in its movement on sanctions … It has faced defeat and a negative response from the international community.”
Previously, Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the US efforts as “futile” and said that “the US approach represents a major threat to international peace and security, and an unprecedented threat to the United Nations and the Security Council. “.
“Iran asserts that if the United States, directly or in cooperation with several of its allies, takes any action in line with these threats, it will face a serious response and must bear the dangerous consequences of that,” it said in a statement.
How did the world react?
Britain and France, permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as Germany, said Washington’s declaration “could not have any legal effect” as the United States used the agreement mechanism it abandoned.
The three countries said in a joint statement: “It follows that the decisions and actions taken based on this measure or its possible results will not have legal effect. We have worked tirelessly to preserve the nuclear deal, and we remain committed to doing so. “.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, another permanent member of the Security Council, said that “illegal initiatives and actions by the United States, by definition, cannot have international legal consequences for other countries.”
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres told the Security Council on Saturday that he (Guterres) could not take any action, because “there seems to be ambiguity” on the issue.
But US officials believe that despite abandoning the deal, they still have the right to activate the reimposition clause.
The announcement came 30 days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed the council that the Trump administration was in the process of activating this mechanism.
Pompeo said in a statement Saturday night that measures against countries that do not apply sanctions will be announced in the coming days, without going into details.
After abandoning the agreement, the United States unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Iran, which together with low oil prices have paralyzed the country’s economy, which has been severely affected by the Corona pandemic.
Washington’s announcement comes about six weeks before the US presidential election, when Trump faces Democratic rival Joe Biden, who has pledged to meet with the United States on the deal.
