The United States has suffered a humiliating defeat among the United Nations because its proposal to extend an arms embargo on Iran received support from only the Dominican Republic in the Security Council vote.
The US resolution was never likely passed in the face of Russian and Chinese opposition. It was proposed as a ploy by the Trump administration to pave the way for more drastic action against Iran.
But the scale of defeat on Friday underscored U.S. isolation on the world stage ahead of a major diplomatic confrontation that threatens to consume the Security Council and further undermine its authority.
The US radiates anti-Iran rhetoric from earlier draft resolutions in the hope of gaining more supporters, but insists that an extension of the UN embargo indefinitely would have made that impossible. Estonia and Tunisia opposed eleven-hour U.S. pressure to support the renewed concept, a measure of diminished U.S. capability at the UN. Russia and China voted against the resolution, the US and the Dominican Republic voted in favor, and all other councilors abstained.
In his response to the vote, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized other member states.
“The failure of the Security Council to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is unforgivable,” he said in a statement issued even before the result of the vote was declared.
U.S. officials have said that following the defeat of the arms embargo resolution, they would embark on a legally controversial tactic within days of trying to restore UN sanctions lifted when Iran struck a nuclear deal in 2015. signed with great powers.
The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has a mechanism by which one of the parties to the UN sanctions agreement could “snap” back on Iran.
Trump will withdraw the US from the JCPOA in 2018, but US diplomats and lawyers will claim that it is still technically a party to the agreement and therefore has the authority to snap back sanctions. Most of the rest of the world, including some of Washington’s closest allies, disagree, but the Trump administration has so far shown willingness to go it alone.
“The U.S. goal this week has been pretty obvious to table a resolution that will fail, so they have an excuse for new week after snapback,” said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group. “It’s just a little embarrassing that it failed so badly.”
The US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, announced his resignation days before the UN arms embargo resolution.
If the US continues with its snapback plan, it could lead to a situation where there is no agreement on the status of UN arms sanctions, with the US declaring that they are in effect and most other countries adhering to it. .
“Honestly, we will soon go into what your ‘security council in Wonderland’ could be, which is why the US will claim that the snapback train is rolling and others will refuse to accept that,” Gowan said. “There will be a lot of procedural fights in the council. But in fact there will be two realities. ”
The United Kingdom could find itself caught between these two realities, forced to choose between them. London has so far adhered to an agreed European line with France and Germany.
“It seems that the UK has chosen to put its security relationship with Paris and Berlin ahead of its desire for a Brexit trade agreement with the US,” Gowan said.
Vladimir Putin has suggested a summit over video conferencing on Iran, and the Élysée Palace in Paris signaled that Emmanuel Macron was open to the suggestion. Donald Trump said he had heard about the proposal, but was not told the details. Trump and Macron spoke by phone Friday but the White House account of the call did not name the proposed summit.
Suzanne DiMaggio, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment Institute for Peace, said the U.S. focus was not on building coalitions on the issue, but on provoking a diplomatic confrontation at the UN to please Trump’s core supporters.
She said the ultimate goal of the US was also to try to provoke Iran into a reaction, possibly to leave the JCPOA itself, or even to expel international nuclear inspectors.
“It’s a fire-ground approach, which destroys the JCPOA to make it difficult for a Biden regime, and for the Iranians, to go back,” DiMaggio said. “They are not trying to cover up Iran’s nuclear program. They really want to kill this deal. ”
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