US demands restoration of UN sanctions against Iran

The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its demand for all UN sanctions on Iran to be restored, citing significant Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the notification to the president of the UN Security Council on Thursday, setting the stage for a showdown in the world body that could lead to a crisis of credibility for its most important and powerful institution.

Speaking to reporters at the UN after delivering the letter, Pompeo said the US had the right to reimpose sanctions under UN resolution 2231 that laid out the rules of the deal. The US in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the accord between Iran and six world powers.

“We think this is really straightforward we think this is very simple. These UN Security Council resolutions will come back into place 31 days from now, and the United States will vigorously enforce them,” Pompeo said.

He said he expected the other UN Security Council members to “comply with their obligations”.

Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi said on Thursday the US letter was “inadmissible”.

“The US has no legal authority. The US has no legal argument whatsoever,” he said.

Ravanchi said the US had failed to utilise the dispute process under resolution 2231 and before notifying the Security Council must make “good faith efforts to resolve the issue” and said the US move is “doomed to failure”.

“We are confident that nothing is going to happen in the next 30 days. So, the US attempt is is in futility,” Ravanchi said.

UNSC members reject US step

A Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, denounced the US move on Twitter.

“Looks like there are 2 planets. A fictional dog-eat-dog one where US pretends it can do whatever it wants without ‘cajoling’ anyone, breach and leave deals but still benefit from them, and another one where the rest of the world lives and where intl law and diplomacy reign”, he wrote.

Separately, three European nations also rejected the move and stressed their continuing support for the nuclear accord, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“France, Germany and the United Kingdom note that the US ceased to be a participant to the JCPOA following their withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2018,” the group said in a statement. “We cannot therefore support this action which is incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA.”

Pompeo lashed out at the Europeans, accusing them of privately agreeing with the US concerns but lacking the courage to say so publicly. “Instead they chose to side with ayatollahs,” he said. “Their actions endanger the people of Iraq, of Yemen, of Lebanon, of Syria and indeed their own citizens as well.”

‘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 UN Kelly Craft said the US was notifying the body of “significant non-performance” by Iran related to the nuclear deal. As a result, Craft said the process leading to the reimposition of UN sanctions had been initiated.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported some Iranian violations of the agreement, but Tehran says those are the result of the US violating the accord by withdrawing from it and then reimposing harsh unilateral sanctions.

Craft noted that the European participants in the deal had attempted 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 persists”.

“As a result, the United States is left with no choice but to notify the council that Iran is in significant non-performance of its JCPOA commitments,” she wrote, using the acronym for the deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Source: Aljazeera.com