The United States was further isolated on Friday over its bid to re-impose international sanctions on Iran, with 13 countries on the 15-member United Nations Security Council expressing their opposition, arguing that Washington’s movement was invalid. is, using a process agreed upon during a nuclear deal that ended two years ago.
In the 24 hours since US Prime Minister Mike Pompeo said he triggered a 30-day countdown to a return of UN sanctions on Iran – including an arms embargo – longer allies have joined the UK, France, Germany and Belgium, as well as China Russia, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia have already written letters in opposition, Reuters news agency reported.
The US has accused Iran of a 2015 breach by world powers aimed at stopping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from sanctions. But US President Donald Trump described it as the ‘worst deal ever’ and set it off in 2018.
Diplomats said Russia, China and many other countries were unlikely to re-impose sanctions on Iran. Pompeo again warned Russia and China against that on Friday, threatening U.S. action if they refuse to take UN action on Iran again.
The Trump administration on Friday dismissed the almost universal opposition to his question, declaring that a 30-day countdown to the “snapback” of punishments had begun.
“We do not need anyone’s permission,” U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook told reporters in a briefing on Friday. “Iran is in conflict with its voluntary nuclear commitments. The condition is met to initiate snapback. And that’s why we have now started initiating snapback.”
He said that “if people support or oppose what we do is not material”, adding that “today is one of the 30-day process.”
The US acted on Thursday after the Security Council again rejected its offer last week to extend an arms embargo on Iran beyond its October deadlines. Only the Dominican Republic came to Washington to vote yes.
Iranian ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi immediately rejected the US movement, which he said was “doomed to failure”.
The Dominican Republic has not yet written to the council to state its position on the snapback sanction.
During the process that Washington says it has triggered, it appears that all UN sanctions should be reinstated by midnight by 00:00 GMT (20 hours time in New York) on September 19 – just days before Trump is to blame world leaders at the UN General Assembly, the annual meeting that will be largely virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanch said the US movement ‘was doomed to failure [Mike Segar/Pool via Reuters]
What now?
A 2015 Security Council resolution anchoring the nuclear deal states that if no councilor submits a draft resolution to extend sanctions on Iran within 10 days of a failure to comply, then the president of the Security Council body doing so within the remaining 20 days.
The US could veto this, giving it a clearer argument that sanctions on Iran should be reintroduced.
However, the 2015 resolution also states that the council “would take into account the opinions of the states involved”. Given the strong opposition, some diplomats say the council president – Indonesia for August and Niger for September – should not draft a text.
“Confronted with this very strong view from a majority of Security Council members that the snapback process is not a trigger because the presidency is not bound to implement the draft resolution,” a UN Security Council diplomat told Reuters , speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pompeo and Hook signaled that Washington expects Indonesia as Niger to bring a text to a vote. Another option of the US is to submit the draft itself or ask the Dominican Republic to do so.
The US states that it can trigger the snapback process of sanctions, as the Security Council resolution of 2015 still mentions it as a nuclear deal participant.
In a joint letter to the Security Council on Thursday hours after the US lodged its complaint, the United Kingdom, Germany and France stated: “All decisions and actions that will be taken on the basis of this procedure or its possible outcome would also lack any legal effect. “
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres distanced himself from the Security Council showdown.
“Members of the Security Council will have to interpret their own resolution,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “It’s not the Secretary-General.”
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