US demands ‘snapback’ restoration of UN sanctions against Iran
Pompeo submits request to Security Council president, setting stage for showdown in world body that voted last week not to extend arms embargo against Tehran
The Trump administration on Thursday 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, 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. Even before Pompeo presented the council president with the notice, other members rejected the step, which drew swift praise from Israel.
“The United States will never allow the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism to freely buy and sell planes, tanks, missiles and other kinds of conventional weapons … (or) to have a nuclear weapon,” Pompeo told a UN press conference.
He said the US action will extend the arms embargo, which is set to expire Oct. 18, and prohibit Iran from ballistic missile testing and enrichment of nuclear material.
None of the other council members believe the US has the legal right to demand the re-imposition, or “snapback,” of sanctions because us President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018. As such, the demand is expected to further isolate the US at the UN and test the Security Council’s credibility.
“Looks like there are 2 planets, Russian deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky shot back on Twitter. “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.”
In a letter presented to Indonesia’s ambassador to the UN, Dian Triansyah Djani, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the council, Pompeo said the US was notifying the body of “significant non-performance” by Iran related to the nuclear deal. As a result, Pompeo said the process leading to the re-imposition 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 re-imposing harsh unilateral sanctions.
Pompeo noted that the European participants in the deal had attempted to bring Iran back into compliance. But he 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,” Pompeo wrote, using the initialism for the deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Pompeo’s letter was accompanied by a six-page explanation of why the US believes it retains the right to invoke snapback, a mechanism afforded to participants in the nuclear accord by the Security Council resolution that enshrined the deal.
The US maintains that its withdrawal from the nuclear deal does not obviate its right as an original participant and a permanent Security Council member to demand the restoration of sanctions.
That argument, however, has already been rejected by the other members of the council, including US allies Britain and France, along with China and Russia.
“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 released after Pompeo presented the letter. “We cannot therefore support this action which is incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA.”
“We do not take it that they have the legal right or the reason to initiate this thing,” the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said Thursday before Pompeo’s notification. “So, of course, we will challenge it.”
China has said it agrees with the Russian position, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told UN chief António Guterres in a Thursday phone call that the Security Council must resist the US demand.
“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.
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.”
Israel welcomed Pompeo’s letter, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the Security Council resolution enshrining the JCPOA in 2015 was a “dereliction of its duty to protect international peace and security” that “effectively makes the Security Council complicit in arming Iran’s murderous regime.”
“Israel stands proudly and firmly with the United States, as do governments across the Middle East who opposed the JCPOA quietly and now support the restoration of sanctions publicly,” he said in a statement. “Ultimately, the tyrants of Tehran must understand this: If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, it must start acting like a normal country. That has not yet happened.”
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi called the American declaration it a “brave and important move” made all the more necessary by the lifting of the arms embargo last week.
“I call on the international community to support the American initiative and restore to the international system the stability that comes from full compliance with Security Council resolutions,” he said in a statement.
“Reimposing the UN sanctions on Iran is a critical step to curbing Iranian aggression, which threatens the entire world,” said Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan. “The Security Council should not allow the world’s largest terror regime to obtain and trade lethal weapons and ballistic missiles freely. Nor should it pave the way for Iran to fulfill its nuclear ambitions. Now is the time for the international community to act decisively and impose crippling sanctions on Iran. Not to reward its malicious aspirations.”
Under the terms of the Security Council resolution that enshrined the nuclear deal, Thursday’s notification starts a 30-day clock after which pre-2015 UN sanctions on Iran that were eased will be re-imposed, unless a resolution specifically extending their suspension is passed. The US, however, would use its veto power to block any resolution extending the sanctions relief.
Because of the legal debate over US standing, it is possible that the snapback demand will simply be ignored by the other members, which could call into question the Security Council’s relevance and ability to enforce its own legally-binding decisions.
Trump and Pompeo had made no secret of their intention to pursue snapback, particularly after the administration’s embarrassing defeat last week at the Security Council on extending the arms embargo on Iran that expires in October. The US won just one other “yes” vote, with China and Russia opposed and the 11 other members abstaining.
As with the arms embargo, Russia and China bitterly oppose reimposing other UN sanctions on Iran. So do US allies Britain and France, which are hoping to preserve the nuclear deal in the event Trump loses his bid for a second term in November’s presidential election. Democratic Joe Biden has said he would try to revive the agreement.
The Europeans fear that the reimposition of sanctions may lead Iran to quit the deal entirely and plow ahead with efforts to develop atomic weapons. The Trump administration says it withdrew precisely because it eased sanctions, opening major revenue streams for Iran while gradually easing restrictions on its nuclear activities, which could be financed by the newly-available funds.
