Experts told CNN that these unilateral efforts – which come less than two months before the presidential election – are unlikely to affect arms sales on its own. Some say the move separates the U.S. from its E3 allies – Germany, France and the United Kingdom – and works to advance a joint comprehensive plan, the Landmark, 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Although the U.S. withdrew from the deal in 2018, administration officials have argued that they have a legal right to trigger the lifting of sanctions as part of the agreement.
Elliott Abrams, the special envoy for Iran, told reporters this week at 8pm ET on Saturday that “virtually all UN sanctions on Iran will be re-imposed.”
“We expect every nation to adhere to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council – the term, the end,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. “And the United States intends to implement all the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. And come on Monday, a new series of UN Security Council resolutions will come which we implement, and we intend to ask every country to stand behind them.”
Barbara Slavin, director of the Atlantic Council’s Future Iran Initiative, said most countries have rejected the U.S.’s legal argument and are prepared to ignore snapback sanctions.
“It has no practical meaning, and in a sense it just sounds ridiculous and more different, because we’re moving around screaming, you know, ‘this is the case,’ and the rest of the world is saying, ‘No, it’s not,’ ” He told CNN.
“American companies are still illegal to sell arms to Iran under U.S. law. There is a European arms embargo, which will last until 2023. And the rest of the world will wait for the U.S. presidential election and then decide whether to do so.” Not to sell weapons to Iran, “Slavin said.” This is really about the Trump administration trying to bury the JCPOA when it thinks it has a chance. “
Slavin and Eric Brewer, deputy directors and senior partners with the Project on Nuclear Problems at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both noted that U.S. Snapback can already carry out comprehensive sanctions under its own officers without enforcing sanctions.
“I think this is mostly about promoting the collapse of the JCPOA at this point, because I think the administration has realized at this point that the way they are arguing is really the standing bho, on which it is putting tremendous pressure. “Iran is ready to offer a number of concessions on the issue where it comes back to the table and on the demands that the United States has made,” Brower told CNN.
Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense Democracy, argued that “the JCPO is basically already dead. We haven’t had a funeral.”
Goldberg told CNN that he expects President Donald Trump’s executive order “to go ahead and allow Iran to impose sanctions on any firm or individual linked to the transfer of advanced conventional weapons.”
“This is a major threat to their global defense sales from both Moscow and Beijing,” he said. “They have to make a calculation. If the president is willing to impose those sanctions, he just wants to sacrifice or risk his other sales around the world to help the Islamic Republic.”
However, experts said that Russia and China should not be allowed to enter the U.S. in November. Is unlikely to move forward with any arms migration after the election.
“No one is in the mood to rush into this before November, when we’ll see what happens in the United States,” Brewer said.
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