– This is serious – VG

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared over the weekend that the United States has reactivated UN sanctions against Iran. These are the sanctions that were lifted when the 2015 Iran nuclear deal went into effect, an agreement from which the United States, as is well known, withdrew in 2018.

The United States will thus reintroduce the sanctions of an agreement to which they are not part and, at the same time, will ask the UN countries to take the same line.

“If UN member states fail to meet their obligations and impose these sanctions, the United States will ensure that those mistakes have consequences and will assure us that Iran will not reap the benefits of activities prohibited by the UN,” Pompeo said.

Just about sanctions

On Monday, the Trump administration presented a list of 27 individuals and units involved in Iran’s nuclear program and arms industry, and who will now punish, writes NTB. They are mainly employees of the Ministry of Defense and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. In addition, new sanctions are introduced against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has intensified his cooperation with Iran.

When he introduced the list, Chancellor Mike Pompeo said he expected Germany, Britain and France to impose the same sanctions, writes The Guardian.

– The United States says it is reintroducing UN sanctions. That is where we are now. The three European powers, Britain, France and Germany, say this has no legal force, says Sverre Lodgaard, principal investigator at NUPI.

Lodgaard is one of Norway’s leading experts on both Iranian conditions and nuclear disarmament.

Sources: Iran and North Korea cooperate

On Sunday, Reuters reports that Iran and North Korea have resumed cooperation on a missile program, and that the Americans believe Iran has enough material to make a nuclear bomb before the end of the year. The information comes from official sources, according to the news agency.

– If the nuclear deal had been intact, it would have taken Iran more than a year to produce enough weapons material for a bomb. But now that things are as they are, time has been shortened a lot, says the NUPI researcher about the latest press releases.

Go against the Security Council

Lodgaard explains the background to what is now unfolding on the highly dramatic world stage:

Foreign Minister Pompeo joined the UN in August with two demands:

1. The United States wanted the embargo on the arms trade with Iran to be expanded. According to the nuclear agreement, the embargo will end after five years, that is, on October 16 of this year.
2. The United States wanted to reintroduce the UN sanctions, which were relaxed in 2015.

At the UN Security Council, the United States received support only from the Dominican Republic, which has a particularly close relationship with the United States. All other member states voted emphatically against the US proposal in both cases, referring to the fact that the US is no longer part of the nuclear deal.

– The United States suffered two major defeats at the UN. Then Pompeo comes back and says the United States will reintroduce sanctions anyway, summarizes Lodgaard.

– Sounds creative enough?

– Creativity consists in the United States saying that power is above justice. This is serious. Here, the authority of the Security Council is challenged in a more dramatic way than I recall experiencing or seeing before, says the lead investigator.

A solo career

When asked what this could lead to, Lodgaard responds:

– Sharpens the relationship between the Trump administration and the outside world. This is a solo career in practice. Furthermore, it undermines international cooperation.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stated that the United States is alone in the new sanctions against the country.

“We can say that the ‘maximum pressure’ of the United States on Iran, politically and legally, has become the maximum isolation of the United States,” Rouhani said Sunday.

– Why is this happening now? Are there more reasons?

– There are many theories about what the background of this is. For the United States, it is important to prevent the arms trade with Iran from being re-legalized, and the arms embargo will be lifted in mid-October under the agreement. And then one can imagine that it is connected to other things; that the Trump administration may have benefited from sharpening the conflict with Iran before the elections, as hostility towards Iran has wide support, but this is speculation, Lodgaard responds.

Only the helmet of the nuclear deal remains

The question many are asking is how these new sanctions will affect the historic nuclear deal. The deal is already under intense pressure as a result of the US withdrawal and the reintroduction of what it called “historically severe” US sanctions. Since then, Iran has withdrawn from some provisions of the agreement, step by step, in an attempt to force the EU to be more cooperative, without success.

– The settlement has been severely amputated, but the helmet still exists. Should there be an administration change in Washington, Biden will try to get it back on track, Lodgaard says.