US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces that the US will designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) during a press conference at the State Department in Washington, DC, April 8, 2019.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
The United States on Friday lost a bid to extend a UN arms embargo on Iran as Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a summit of world leaders to prevent a “confrontation” over a US threat to reverse all UN sanctions on Tehran trigger.
Russia and China oppose the extension of the arms embargo, which expired in October under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while Washington and the Dominican Republic were the only yes votes.
“The failure of the Security Council to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is unattainable,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “The Security Council rejected direct calls to extend the arms embargo from several countries in the Middle East threatened by Iran’s violence.”
The United States could now pursue a threat to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran with a clause in the nuclear deal, known as a snapback, even though President Donald Trump left the 2018 agreement. Diplomats have said the United States could do this as early as next week, but would face a heavy, messy battle.
Diplomats have said that such a move would further jeopardize the fragile nuclear deal, as Iran would lose a major incentive to curb its nuclear activities. Iran has already broken parts of the nuclear deal in response to the US withdrawal from the pact and unilateral sanctions.
Putin on Friday proposed a video summit with the United States and the remaining parties to the nuclear deal – Britain, France, China, Germany and Iran – to try to prevent further “confrontation and escalation” at the United Nations over Iran.
“The issue is urgent,” Putin said in a statement, adding that the alternative was “only more escalation of tensions, increasing risk of conflict – such a scenario must be avoided.”
Asked if he would participate, Trump told reporters, “I hear there is something, but I have not been told yet.” French President Emmanuel Macron is open to taking part in a video summit, the Elysee Palace said.
The United States has argued that it could trigger a snapback of sanctions because a UN Security Council resolution called the nuclear deal with Washington a participant. But the remaining parties to the deal are against the move.
Putin said Russia, an ally of Iran in the Syrian civil war, remained fully committed to the nuclear deal and that the aim of a summit would be to lay out steps aimed at “confronting and escalating the situation”. in the Security Council. “
Trump has said he wants to negotiate a new deal with Iran that prevents it from developing nuclear weapons and also restricts its activities in the region and elsewhere. Trump, who has strayed from a series of international agreements, called the 2015 nuclear deal – reached under his predecessor Barack Obama – “the worst deal ever.”
Diplomats have said several countries would argue that the United States could not legally activate proceeds of sanctions and that the measures would simply not re-impose on Iran itself.
.
