The Trump administration on Thursday formally informed the United Nations of its demand to restore all UN sanctions on Iran, citing key Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the message to the President of the UN Security Council, setting the stage for a showdown in the world body that could lead to a crisis of credibility for his most important and powerful institution. Even before Pompeo presented the president with the announcement, other members rejected the move.
Not one of the other councilors believes that the United States has the legal right to demand the re-imposition, as a “snapback,” of sanctions, since President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. If thus the question is expected to further isolate the US from the UN and test the credibility of the Security Council.
‘Non-performance’ by Iran
In a letter that Pompeo presented to Indonesia’s ambassador to the UN, Dian Triansyah Djani, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the council, US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft told the US the body to report “significant non-performance” by Iran in connection with the nuclear deal. As a result, Craft said it had initiated the process leading to the re-imposition of UN sanctions.
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The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported some Iranian violations of the agreement, but Tehran says that is the result of the US damaging the agreement by withdrawing it and then cracking down. reinstate unilateral sanctions.
Craft noted that European participants in the deal sought to bring Iran back into compliance. But she said “despite extensive efforts and exhaustive diplomacy on the part of those Member States, Iran’s significant non-performance remains.
“As a result, the United States is left with no choice but to notify the Council that Iran is in significant default on its JCPOA obligations,” she wrote, using the acronym for the formal name of the deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA
Craft’s letter was accompanied by a six-page statement explaining why the FSA reserves the right to call for a snapback, a mechanism offered to participants in the nuclear deal by the Security Council resolution which shifted the deal.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and US President Trump have made no secret of their intention to trigger snapback, other councilors say the US does not have the right to do so [Mandel Ngan/ AFP]
The US maintains that withdrawing the nuclear deal does not waive its right as an original participant and a permanent member of the Security Council to demand the restoration of sanctions.
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However, that argument has already been rejected by the other members of the council, including US allies Britain and France, along with China and Russia.
“We do not take it that they have the legal right as the reason to initiate this thing,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Thursday before Pompeo’s announcement. “Of course we will challenge that.”
China has said it agrees with Russia’s position, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a telephone call to the UN chief GN on Thursday that the Security Council should oppose the US question.
“This would have dangerous consequences for international law. It will bring nothing but the destruction of international mechanisms and it will discredit the Security Council,” Zarif said.
Under the terms of the Security Council resolution anchoring the nuclear deal, Thursday’s notification will begin a 30-day clock, after which UN sanctions for 2015 that will be imposed will be reinstated, except as a resolution specifically to extend their suspension. However, the US would use its veto power to block any resolution that extends the relief of sanctions.
Could be ignored
Due to the legal debate over U.S. status, it is possible that the demand for snapback will simply be ignored by the other members, which could cast doubt on the relevance and ability of the Security Council to enforce its own legally binding decisions.
Trump and Pompeo had made no secret of their intention to pursue a snapback, especially after the administration’s embarrassing defeat last week at the Security Council over the extension of the arms embargo on Iran that expires in October. The US won just one more “yes” vote, with China and Russia against and the other 11 members recalled.
As with the arms embargo, Russia and China are bitterly opposed to the re-imposition of other UN sanctions on Iran. So do US allies Britain and France, who hope to keep the nuclear deal in case Trump loses his bid for a second term in the November presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden has said he would try to make the deal happen again.
The Europeans are worried that the re-imposition of sanctions could lead Iran to suspend the deal altogether and explode with efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Trump administration says it is currently withdrawing because it demanded sanctions, and opened up large revenue streams for Iran, while gradually reducing restrictions on its nuclear activities that could pay money.
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