Iran Says 'Historic' US Defeat Close As Arms Embargo To Be Lifted

Iran on Monday said the US was facing a "historic" defeat as an arms embargo against Tehran is to be lifted within days despite Washington's bid to have it extended.

Addressing the issue at a news conference, foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also lashed out at the "insanity" of the latest US sanctions against banks in the country.

On Sunday the "historic defeat of the United States will be realised, and that came to be despite its attempts, trickery and extrajudicial moves," Khatibzadeh said.

"Iran again showed that the United States is not as all-powerful as it says," he added.

The embargo on the sale of arms to Iran is due to start expiring progressively from October 18, under the terms of a UN resolution that blessed the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic republic and world powers.

Washington suffered a setback in August when it failed to win support from the United Nations Security Council to indefinitely extend the embargo.

President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018 before reimposing US sanctions on Iran.

Since then, the US has slapped additional sanctions on Iran as part of a campaign of "maximum pressure", with the latest on Thursday concerning 18 banks.

"We used to say they are addicted to sanctions, but now they have reached insanity," Khatibzadeh said.

The spokesman added that the excessive use of sanctions had caused the Americans to "cannibalise" themselves, as well as prompted other countries to find alternatives to the US dollar.

The US claims that transactions involving humanitarian goods such as food and medicine are exempt and that sanctions are "directed at the regime".

Yet statements from experts and rights groups indicate the sanctions have had dire humanitarian consequences and caused suffering for the people of Iran.

In a speech on Monday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pointed to the role of sanctions on Iran's troubled economy and called them "a crime in the true sense of the word."

He emphasised that the "cure" for the economy "should not be sought outside of the country", and called for the "focusing on production, preventing the continuous devaluation of national currency" and fighting smuggling and corruption.

"We will continue resisting so that, God willing, this maximum pressure will turn to maximum disgrace and a cause of regret for them," he said.

Photo: IRNA

Pompeo Warns of UN Sanctions if Iran Arms Ban Ends

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday gave his clearest indication yet that the United States would seek to force UN sanctions on Iran if an arms embargo lapses.

Russia and China, two of the Permanent Five nations that enjoy veto power on the Security Council, want the UN embargo on selling conventional weapons to Iran to end on October 18 as laid out under a 2015 resolution.

Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the United States would introduce a resolution to extend the embargo "in the near future" which "we hope will be met with approval from other members of the P5."

"In the event it's not, we're going to take the action necessary to ensure that this arms embargo does not expire," he said.

The United States has previously said it has the authority to "snap back" UN economic sanctions that were lifted as part of a nuclear deal with Iran.

"We have the capacity to execute snapback and we're going to use it in a way that protects and defends America," Pompeo told the committee.

The 2015 resolution had blessed a denuclearization deal with Iran negotiated by former president Barack Obama from which President Donald Trump pulled out in 2018.

Trump has since repeatedly denounced the accord, but Pompeo argues that the United States remains a "participant" in the accord -- with the right to snap back UN sanctions for violations -- as it was listed in the 2015 resolution.

Even US allies are skeptical about the legal argument and warn that such a move could damage the Security Council as an institution.

France and Britain, the other nations in the P5, support extending the arms embargo but say the greater priority is maintaining a diplomatic solution to stop Iran's nuclear program.

The embargo issue could come to a head days before the US presidential election. Trump's rival Joe Biden backs the Iran agreement.

After leaving the accord, Trump unilaterally imposed US sanctions aimed at strangling Iran's economy and reducing its regional influence.

The Trump administration has demanded that all nations stop buying Iran's oil, its biggest export.

Pompeo on Thursday announced a further expansion of sanctions enforcement, saying the United States would punish anyone who transfers 22 specific metals including forms of aluminum and steel that could be used in Iran's weapons programs.

Photo: State Department

Saudi, US Push For Extension of Iran Arms Embargo

US and Saudi officials on Monday called for extending a UN arms embargo on Iran, warning of major implications for regional security, accusing Tehran of arming Yemeni rebels.

The embargo, put in place as part of a nuclear accord signed with Tehran in 2015, is set to expire in October but Washington is working to extend the ban as tensions with its arch-rival remain high.

Lifting the ban would "embolden" Tehran and could trigger a regional arms race, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters in Riyadh.

"This is not an outcome that the UN Security Council can accept," Hook said at a joint news conference with Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs.

At the conference venue, Saudi officials displayed remnants of intercepted missiles and drones they said were supplied by Iran to Yemen's Huthi rebels.

Iran denies arming the rebels.

The Huthis have recently targeted Saudi cities, including the capital Riyadh, with a series of missile and drone strikes.

 "Iran seeks to provide weapons to terrorist organizations. What will happen if the embargo is lifted?" Jubeir said.

 "Iran will become more... aggressive," he added.

Earlier this month, a UN report said cruise missiles and drones used in attacks last year on Saudi oil facilities were "of Iranian origin".

The attacks on Saudi state oil giant Aramco's facilities caused extensive damage and briefly interrupted production of half of the country's oil output.

Russia, China Vetoes at UN

Hook said later in Bahrain that if the arms embargo expired, Iran would be able to acquire advanced arms and pose a greater threat to Gulf security and international shipping.

“It will trigger an arms race in one region that needs it the least," Hook said on his second leg of the Gulf tour to garner support for extending the arms embargo on Iran.

Allowing the UN arms embargo to expire would be a betrayal of the security council's responsibility of maintaining international peace and security, he said.

The US official also said that the embargo has constrained Iran's ability to freely move weapons to its proxies.

Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayyani expressed his country's total support for extending the arms embargo on Iran, accusing Tehran of continuing to supply arms to militias in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq. 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned last week of a return of UN sanctions on Iran if the Security Council fails to extend an embargo.

France, Britain and Germany, which all still support the nuclear deal, have also said they supported extending the embargo.

No date has been scheduled for a vote on the resolution and it is unlikely to pass, as veto-wielding China and Russia have already spoken out against extending the embargo.

Iran agreed with major world powers in 2015 to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions.

But in 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and reimposed sanctions, prompting Iran to roll back its own commitments.

Photo: IRNA

Trump Administration Unveils Security Council Resolution Extending Iran Arms Embargo

By Colum Lynch and Robbie Gramer

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a long-awaited U.N. Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution extending an arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October, setting the stage for a great-power clash and likely veto in the U.N.’s principal security body, according to a copy of the draft obtained by Foreign Policy.

The U.S. draft resolution would oblige nations, including the United States, to take active measures to prevent Iran from supplying, selling, or transferring arms to other countries, unless the Security Council committee overseeing U.N. sanctions approves such transfers. The measure would also require all U.N. member states to inspect cargo transiting through their territory to check for illicit arms imports or exports from Iran, and grant them authority to seize and destroy such weapons.

It would also impose an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals responsible for violating the arms embargo, and authorize states to “seize, inspect, freeze (impound), confiscate, and dispose of any vessel in their ports.” In an effort to ratchet up pressure on Iran, the resolution would request that U.N. Secretary General António Guterres report any attacks by armed groups that threaten regional stability or interference in the freedom of navigation in the region. The resolution would also establish a special council committee to monitor compliance with the sanctions and appoint a panel of eight experts to investigate and compile information on potential violations of the embargo.

If passed, the resolution would fall under Chapter VII of the U.N. charter, making it legally binding and enforceable. But the U.S. measure, according to several U.N. Security Council diplomats, stands little chance of being adopted by the 15-nation council. One council diplomat said that the U.S. initiative might not even receive the minimum threshold of nine votes it needs in the council that would force a veto from one of the permanent Security Council members. “This is not something that they are trying to get through the council,” said the diplomat.

Some council diplomats and other nonproliferation experts see the U.S. move as a way to score political points at home, not to do anything about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.

“The skeptic in me says that the objective of this exercise is to go through the arms embargo resolution, and when it fails, to use that as an excuse to get a snapback of the embargo, and if and when that fails too, to use as a political talking point in the election campaign,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department nonproliferation official now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Since China and Russia are almost certain to ignore any U.N. arms embargo forced by U.S. maneuvers, the practical impact on Iran’s ability to cause mischief will be minimal, he said.

“It’s not actually about stopping any arms from China and Russia, it’s about winning a political argument,” he said.

The draft also condemns a string of alleged armed attacks by Iran against the United States, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, including the September 2019 drone and missile attack against two Saudi oil installations and a Dec. 27 strike allegedly by an Iranian-backed militia against an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk province, Iraq, which resulted in the death of a U.S. citizen and injured several U.S. and Iraqi personnel.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) envisioned the expiration of a sweeping U.N. arms embargo on Iran after five years if Tehran complied with its obligation to scale back its nuclear activities and subject its program to expanded international monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran had largely complied with its obligations until Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in May 2018 and reintroduced a series of U.S. sanctions against the country. 

Since then, Tehran has violated key tenets of the JCPOA, including enriching uranium to purity levels higher than what is allowed in the deal and increasing the stockpiles of enriched uranium, according to assessments from the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

China and Russia, which wield veto power over Security Council decisions, have signaled their unwillingness to approve the resolution. Other signatories of the Iran deal—Britain, France, and Germany—have all supported retaining arms embargoes on Iran, but they also came out against the Trump administration’s threat to reimpose sanctions, highlighting the sharp disagreements between Washington and its closest European allies over Iran. 

“We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the UNSC,” the foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany said in a statement on June 19. “We would not support such a decision which would be incompatible with our current efforts to preserve the JCPoA.”

The foreign ministers also cautioned that lifting the U.N. conventional arms embargo “would have major implications for regional security and stability” but stressed that even without a U.N. arms embargo, the European Union has its own ban on sending conventional weapons and missile technology to Iran through 2023. Senior U.S. officials have said that Russia and China would be poised to sell conventional arms to Iran if the U.N. embargo expires.

A State Department spokesperson told Foreign Policy that “failing to extend the arms embargo will risk even greater violence in the Middle East.”

The spokesperson added that the U.S. is “hopeful” that the draft resolution will be supported by the Security Council, stating that China and Russia have upheld similar restrictions in the past. “Given that Iran’s activity continues to pose a threat to international peace and security, we do not see any reason why [the] Security Council consensus on this issue should have changed,” the spokesperson said.

The Trump administration’s push to reimpose sanctions opened a unique legal debate over the United States’ current standing with the JCPOA. The Trump administration has argued that it is still legally a party to the deal the president disavowed, allowing it to trigger the snapback of sanctions. This argument has angered top diplomats from other countries that were signatories to the deal, who said the United States couldn’t have it both ways.

Brian Hook, the Trump administration’s top Iran envoy, said in an interview with Foreign Policy last month that the president remains open to “sitting down” with Tehran for talks on a new deal. He said that the United States would still maintain its expanding sanctions regime on Iran in the meantime. 

“We’re in no hurry. We have a good policy in place. The regime needs to decide when it wants to come to the table,” he said.

Photo: State Department

US Wants Security Council to Extend Iran Arms Embargo

The US has proposed a UN Security Council resolution condemning a devastating 2019 attack on Saudi oil facilities it blames on Iran and proposing an extension of an arms embargo against the Islamic Republic, sources said.

The embargo, put in place as part of a nuclear accord signed with Tehran in 2015, is set to expire in October, but Washington has been working to extend the ban as tensions with its arch-rival remain high.

On Friday, France, the UK and Germany—all signatories to the deal—issued a joint statement arguing against lifting the ban as scheduled, saying it could have "major implications for regional security and stability."

The US resolution—a draft of which was obtained by AFP—"condemns the attacks of September 2019 against Saudi Arabia carried out by Iran.”

It also calls for the body to "prohibit the supply, sale or transfer, direct or indirect... of weapons and related materials," excluding those that are approved with 30 days' notice.

No date has been scheduled for a vote on the resolution and it is unlikely to pass, as veto-wielding China and Russia have already spoken out against extending the embargo.

The 2019 attacks on Saudi state oil giant Aramco's facilities caused extensive damage and briefly interrupted production of half of the country's oil output.

Parts of the cruise missiles and drones used in the attacks were either made in Iran or exported there, according to a UN report based on an examination of the debris released earlier this month.

Observers say the US attempt to extend the embargo is part of efforts to re-impose UN sanctions on Iran, lifted in 2015 when the agreement was signed.

France, the UK and Germany have already rejected any "unilateral attempt" to re-impose UN sanctions on Iran.

Iran agreed with major world powers in 2015 to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of punishing international sanctions.

But in 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement and reimposed sanctions, prompting Iran to roll back its own commitments.

Photo: Wikicommons

Britain, France, Germany Will Not Back U.N. Iran Sanctions Snapback

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said Friday they opposed lifting a UN arms embargo on Iran this year, after the UN's nuclear watchdog passed a resolution critical of Tehran.

"We believe that the planned lifting of the UN conventional arms embargo established by Resolution 2231 next October would have major implications for regional security and stability," the ministers said in a joint statement.

The statement by the three key European powers on Iran will be a blow to Tehran, which had urged a lifting of the embargo despite US pressure for it to remain in place.

The ban on selling weapons—such as battle tanks, combat aircraft, warships and missiles or missile systems—to Iran had been set to be progressively eased from October.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier this month urged UN Security Council members to oppose a US "conspiracy" to extend the arms embargo.

The three powers said they plan to address the arms embargo issue "in close coordination" with UN Security Council permanent members Russia and China.

The board of governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had passed a resolution Friday urging Tehran to provide inspectors with access to two sites to clarify whether undeclared nuclear activity took place there in the early 2000s.

It was the first such resolution since 2012 and came against a background of tension over the Iranian nuclear program, with Iran's position causing increasing exasperation in Europe.

"Since 2019, Iran has taken nuclear measures contrary to its commitments" under the 2015 deal on its nuclear program with world powers, the ministers' statement said.

It added that Iran "has denied the access requested by the agency for many months" to the sites.

But the powers insisted they remained committed to the 2015 nuclear deal, which analysts believe has been greatly undermined by the withdrawal of the United States in 2018.

They said sanctions should not be reimposed and that they opposed the "maximum" pressure policy against Iran of the administration of US President Donald Trump.

"We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences" in the UN Security Council.

"We remain committed... (to the nuclear deal) and, in order to preserve it, urge Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with the agreement and return to full compliance without delay," said the statement.

Photo: Shutterstock

Despite U.S. Sanctions, Iran Expands Its Nuclear Stockpile

By Colum Lynch

Two years after President Donald Trump announced the U.S withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran has resumed its enrichment of uranium, restarted research and development on advanced centrifuges, and expanded its stockpile of nuclear fuel, cutting in half the time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade fuel to build a nuclear bomb.

“Iran is manifestly closer to being able to produce a nuclear weapon than they were two years ago,” said Richard Nephew, who participated in negotiations on the landmark nuclear deal in 2015.

While there is no evidence Tehran is preparing a dash for a nuclear weapon, the Iranian advances raise questions about the success of the White House’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign, which is aimed at forcing Iran through the imposition of ever more stringent sanctions to accept greater constraints on its political and military support for regional militias and the development of its ballistic missile program.

The effort—which has severely damaged Iran’s economy—has yet to temper Iran’s nuclear ambitions, instead prompting Tehran to resume nuclear activities prohibited by the nuclear pact, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. It has also eroded Washington’s credibility even among many of its traditional allies and placed increasing strains on America’s diplomatic partnerships.

This month, the U.S. State Department publicly unveiled a diplomatic effort to secure a tangible result from its pressure campaign in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election—an agreement by the U.N. Security Council to extend a conventional arms embargo that is scheduled to expire on Oct. 18, just weeks before the election. Back in February, the United States privately circulated elements of a draft Security Council resolution extending the arms embargo to Britain, France, and Germany, hoping to rally support for the initiative.

The United States received a chilly response from the Europeans, who argued that the resolution was all but certain to be vetoed by China and Russia, which plan to sell arms to Iran once the embargo expires. The Europeans say they share Washington’s concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programs and its support for proxies, including Hezbollah and other militias spread across the Middle East. But they fault Washington with undermining a landmark nuclear pact that enjoyed broad international support and which they believed had succeeded in constraining Tehran’s nuclear program, until the United States ditched it.

Last week, Brian Hook, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, warned that if the council failed to agree to extend the embargo, Washington could deliver a potentially lethal blow to the nuclear agreement by triggering a provision that would allow any of the initial seven signatories to reimpose—or snap back—all Iran sanctions, including the conventional arms embargo, that were in force before the nuclear pact was concluded. Iran has warned that if the sanctions are reimposed, it will likely pull out of the nuclear pact, end international inspections of its nuclear energy program, and withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Such a move by Washington would raise complex political, diplomatic, and legal questions about whether the United States, which withdrew its participation in the nuclear deal on May 8, 2018, has the legal right or the moral authority to trigger the snapback provision. Under the terms of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear deal, any participant in the nuclear pact has the right to single-handedly snap back the previous sanctions. Trump administration officials contend that while the United States is no longer a participant in the nuclear deal, it still retains all the rights of a participant under the resolution, which has never been overturned. And they intend to exercise that right if they don’t get their way.

“There is no qualification in 2231 where ‘participant’ is defined in a way to require participation in the JCPOA. And if the drafters wanted to make the qualification, they could have, but they did not,” Hook told reporters on April 30. “This is the plain reading of the text.”

“The arms embargo must be renewed, and we will exercise all diplomatic options to accomplish that,” Hook said. “We have a policy goal of renewing the arms embargo, and that’s where our focus is. We’re hopeful that we’ll succeed.”

John Bellinger III, who served as the principal legal advisor to the National Security Council and the State Department during the George W. Bush administration, said the United States can make a credible legal case for reimposing sanctions but that the outcome could prove self-defeating.

“The U.S. has the right to trigger snapback, but they may ultimately not be effective in achieving what they want to achieve,” he said, warning that states may be disinclined to observe such sanctions. “There is a real risk it could backfire if the other countries are unwilling to go along. If you try to lead but no one will follow, you have not been successful, and the U.S. will have fractured the Security Council.”

“I suspect, at the end of the day, the Security Council will be forced on a purely legal basis to conclude we have the right to submit the resolution [triggering snapback],” Nephew said. “The debate will split the council as a point of fact because you will have the French, Brits, and Germans screaming that we are not doing this in good faith and the Russians and the Chinese will lose their minds on this.” The practical outcome of this approach, he said, is that the Chinese and Russians will cry foul and declare the action illegitimate. “I have no doubt they will sell arms and will do so immediately. Those tanks that [U.S. Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo is so concerned about could be put on the next boat.”

European officials have fumed in private over the latest U.S. threat, which they suspect is designed to kill off the nuclear pact. They view Washington’s legalistic approach as inconsistent and hypocritical, noting that the very resolution being invoked by the United States to reimpose sanctions also calls on states to support the implementation of the nuclear pact. One senior European official also pointed out that a key provision in the U.N. Charter, Article 25, states that “the Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter”—a provision that the United States has ignored.

The U.S. strategy is “legally and politically obscene,” a U.N.-based diplomat privately toldthe International Crisis Group.

Russia has said publicly what some of its European partners are saying privately.

“Their reasoning is ludicrous, of course,” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. in Vienna, said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant published on April 28. “It is common knowledge that Washington officially announced its withdrawal from the nuclear deal on May 8, 2018.”

“Theoretically, an attempt of this sort is possible, but it will make the U.S. appear in an extremely unattractive light,” he added. “I don’t think that the U.N. Security Council members would be ready to support the U.S. bid to remain a JCPOA participant. It is clear to everybody that this is preposterous. … The attempt to implement this plan will cause a lot of harm and lead to stormy debates in the U.N. Security Council.”

Democratic lawmakers who supported the JCPOA chided the administration for withdrawing from it in the first place and then later trying to use the deal to advance its goals. “They’re trying to have it both ways,” one Democratic congressional aide said.

Nevertheless, a bipartisan majority in Congress—including some of Trump’s most stalwart critics on the left—supports extending the Iran arms embargo. Hundreds of House lawmakers from both sides signed on to a letter to Pompeo last month urging an extension of the ban. “[W]e are concerned that the ban’s expiration will lead to more states buying and selling weapons to and from Iran. … This could have disastrous consequences for U.S. national security and our regional allies,” read the letter, which was organized by Reps. Eliot Engel and Michael McCaul, the chairman and the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively.

“It’s now just several months out where China, Russia, other countries from around the world can all sell significant conventional weapons systems to the Iranians in October of this year,” Pompeo told reporters in a briefing last week. “This isn’t far off. This isn’t some fantasy by conservatives. This is a reality.”

The 2015 Iran nuclear pact—the culmination of more than a decade of diplomatic efforts to contain Iran’s nuclear program—offered Tehran an end to crippling economic sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear activities and undertaking a set of verifiable commitments to assure the world it was not building nuclear weapons. It was signed by representatives of Britain, China, the European Union, Iran, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

Trump derided the nuclear pact—a signature foreign-policy achievement for President Barack Obama—as a flawed agreement that gave Iran access to billions of dollars that have since been used to fund Iranian-backed militias and to advance a ballistic missile program that could improve Iran’s ability in the future to deliver a nuclear payload. On May 8, 2018, Trump formally withdrew from the agreement and began a process of imposing a range of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Despite European government efforts to circumvent those sanctions, European businesses have largely observed the U.S. measures, fearing their companies could be penalized and denied access to U.S. consumer financial markets.

Iran has insisted for years that it has never had any desire to build nuclear weapons, but U.S. and other intelligence agencies have long contended that Tehran had been secretly developing nuclear weapons for years. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that it had been working on a nuclear weapon design until at least 2009. But the IAEA also claimed that Iran had stopped its design work and was in compliance with its obligations under the nuclear pact until the United States reneged on the deal.

A year after the United States withdrew from the pact, Tehran began a process of violating its own commitments under the pact, announcing on May 8, 2019, that it would no longer be bound by limits on the size of its stockpiles of enriched uranium. Iran subsequently stepped up activities at the Natanz and Fordow enrichment facilities, increasing stores of a more purified grade of uranium that could bring it close to producing weapons-grade fuel. Iran also restarted prohibited research and development work on advanced centrifuges, which would enable the country to purify its uranium at a greater speed.

Under the terms of the nuclear pact, Iran is permitted to stockpile up to 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, far short of the estimated 1,050 kilograms required to produce enough weapons-grade fuel for a single bomb. But in March, the IAEA reported that Iran had produced 1,021 kilograms of low-enriched uranium, making it all but certain it has enough raw uranium to build a bomb. If Iran decided to pursue a nuclear weapon, according to Nephew, the larger stockpile would cut down its so-called breakout time—the time it would take to convert the low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade fuel—from 12 months to about six months.

But some arms control experts cautioned that Iran would still need to overcome considerable technical hurdles to weaponize and deploy a nuclear weapon. They suspect that Iran’s violations have been carefully calibrated to apply pressure on the other signatories of the nuclear pact to ease sanctions on Iran.

The Iranians’ “actions and statements indicate they are not racing to build a nuclear weapon or amass material for a nuclear weapon,” said Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association. “They are retaliating in a measured way to the U.S. reimposition of sanctions, and they have threatened to go further if the situation continues indefinitely.”

In January, after Iran rejected any constraints on its enrichment of uranium, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany called out Iran for violating the terms of the nuclear pact and jointly triggered a so-called dispute settlement mechanism to press Tehran to come back into compliance or face the prospect of the Europeans declaring it in breach of its obligations—an action that would lead to the reimposition of sanctions. But the Europeans also faulted the United States for withdrawing from the nuclear accord and expressed their hopes that the initiative would compel Iran to reverse course.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at the time that the Europeans “could no longer leave the growing Iranian violations of the nuclear agreement unanswered.”

“Our goal is clear,” he said. “We want to preserve the accord and come to a diplomatic solution within the agreement.”

Richard Gowan, the U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, said Washington’s threat to trigger the snapback may be designed to “scare the Europeans into backing alternative ways to keep the arms embargo alive.”

Gowan said European diplomats had suspected that the United States might try to convince Britain to break with its European partners, declare Tehran in breach of its obligations, and trigger the snapback provision. “The fact the U.S. is making the case that it can still do snapback itself implies that the British option may not be available.”

“I am not sure there is a compromise available,” he added, noting that the Europeans may be paying as much attention as Trump to the U.S. election calendar. “The higher the chances of [Joe] Biden victory in November, the less likely the E3 [the three European signatories to the nuclear pact] will be to buy a U.S. snapback drive.”

Photo: IRNA

Iran Tells US to 'Stop Dreaming' of Extended Arms Embargo

Tehran on Monday told Washington to "stop dreaming" after it was reported that the US plans to prevent the expiry of an international embargo on arms sales to Iran.

The New York Times reported that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "is preparing a legal argument that the United States remains a participant in the Iran nuclear deal that President (Donald) Trump has renounced".

The move was "part of an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran or see far more stringent sanctions reimposed" on the Islamic Republic, it added.

Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Washington escalated in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA—and reimposed sanctions as part of a campaign of "maximum pressure.”

Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Twitter to Pompeo's reported plan to extend the arms embargo.

Zarif wrote on Monday that two years ago Pompeo and "his boss declared 'CEASING US participation' in JCPOA, dreaming that their 'max pressure' would bring Iran to its knees.

"Given that policy's abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant," Zarif said.

“Stop dreaming: Iranian Nation always decides its destiny," the foreign minister added.

The JCPOA was agreed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

It gave the Islamic republic relief from international sanctions in return for limits on its nuclear program.

In response to the US pullout, Iran has gradually rolled back its commitments to the JCPOA, which it says is in accordance with the agreement.

Washington, which accuses Tehran of violating the agreement, wants to prevent the lifting of an arms embargo that is due to expire in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231—the same 2015 resolution that formalized the JCPOA.

The New York Times said the US was planning to achieve its goal through a new resolution that would bar countries from exporting arms to Iran.

But it added that in order to force the issue Pompeo had approved a plan under which the US would claim it legally remains a "participant state" in the nuclear accord.

Iran, for its part, accuses the United States of violating Resolution 2231 by withdrawing from the nuclear accord.

Photo: IRNA

UN Urges Easing of Sanctions on Iran, Others Facing Virus

The UN rights chief called Tuesday for any sanctions imposed on countries like Iran facing the new coronavirus pandemic to be "urgently reevaluated" to avoid pushing strained medical systems into collapse.

"At this crucial time, both for global public health reasons, and to support the rights and lives of millions of people in these countries, sectoral sanctions should be eased or suspended," Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

"In a context of global pandemic, impeding medical efforts in one country heightens the risk for all of us," she said.

Bachelet insisted "humanitarian exemptions to sanctions measures should be given broad and practical effect, with prompt, flexible authorization for essential medical equipment and supplies."

Her comments came as the number of cases of COVID-19 approached 400,000 worldwide, including nearly 17,000 deaths, according to an Agence France-Presse tally using official sources.

Bachelet pointed in particular to the case of Iran – one of the hardest-hit countries in the pandemic with nearly 2,000 deaths.

Even before the pandemic, she pointed out that human rights reports had repeatedly emphasized the impact of sectorial sanctions on access to essential medicines and medical equipment in the country, including respirators and protective gear for health care workers.

Bachelet's office stressed that more than 50 Iranian medics had died since the first COVID-19 case was detected in the country 5 weeks ago.

She warned that Iran's epidemic was also spreading to neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan, putting a strain on their fragile health systems as well.

The statement also cautioned that sanctions could impede medical efforts in Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Zimbabwe during the pandemic.

"The majority of these states have frail or weak health systems," Bachelet warned.

"Progress in upholding human rights is essential to improve those systems – but obstacles to the import of vital medical supplies, including over-compliance with sanctions by banks, will create long-lasting harm to vulnerable communities," she said.

The UN rights chief stressed that "the populations in these countries are in no way responsible for the policies being targeted by sanctions, and to varying degrees have already been living in a precarious situation for prolonged periods."

Bachelet stressed the importance of protecting health workers: "Medical professionals should never be punished by the authorities for pointing out deficiencies in the response to the crisis."

She urged world leaders to come together.

“No country can effectively combat this epidemic on its own," she said. "We need to act with solidarity, cooperation and care."

Photo: Wikicommons

Zarif Says Informed by UN That US Has Denied Him Visa

Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday he has been informed by UN chief Antonio Guterres that Washington has denied him a visa for a trip to UN headquarters in New York.

"What we know is that the US State Secretary (Mike Pompeo), in a call to the Secretary General of the United Nations, said: 'We did not have time to issue a visa for Mohammad Javad Zarif and we will not issue a visa'," Zarif said.

"The Secretary General responded by saying that it is Iran's right to take part in this session," Tehran's top diplomat said, quoted by semi-official news agency ISNA.

Asked about Zarif's complaint, Pompeo said the State Department does not comment on visa matters.

"I will say only this—we will always comply with our obligations under the UN requirements and the Headquarters Agreement, and we will do so in this particular instance and more broadly every day," he told reporters.

Zarif was speaking to reporters in Tehran at a gathering to promote an Iranian peace plan for the Gulf.

His remarks came as Iran held funeral processions on Tuesday for one of its top military commanders killed in a US drone strike in Iraq.

Zarif later took to Twitter, saying the rejection violated the terms of a 1947 agreement on the travel of representatives of UN members to and from the headquarters.

But he said "denying me a visa... pales in comparison to" US sanctions and threats, as well as the "cowardly assassination" of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last week.

"What are they really afraid of? Truth?" he tweeted.

Soleimani's killing in the US strike Friday in Baghdad has sparked a war of words between the arch-foes, with Iran vowing "severe revenge" and US President Donald Trump threatening to hit back hard for any retaliation.

Trump warned on Saturday that Washington had lined up 52 targets if Tehran attacked US personnel or assets.

Zarif said the US visa decision was "a sign of the bankruptcy of the US government and Trump's regime", according to ISNA.

The Iranian foreign minister said he had been planning to go to UN headquarters on Thursday for an open debate on "Upholding the Charter of the United Nations".

But he added that he had also intended to "raise America's crimes" during his visit to New York.

It is not the first time that Iranian officials have encountered problems when travelling to New York for events at UN headquarters.

In December, the UN General Assembly called on the United States to lift restrictions on Iranian diplomats.

Since mid-2019, Iranian diplomats and ministers have been under strict movement restrictions when they are in the United States.

They are limited largely to the area around UN headquarters, the Iranian diplomatic mission and the ambassador's residence.

In September, while taking part in the annual General Assembly, Zarif complained he was unable to visit the country's UN ambassador in a US hospital.

Photo: IRNA

UN Calls for Lifting Restrictions on Iran Diplomats

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday called on the US—which hosts the organization's headquarters—to lift restrictions on Iranian diplomats.

The resolution also condemned the denial of visas to Russian diplomats.

Since the summer, Iranian diplomats and ministers have been under strict movement restrictions when they are in the US. They are limited largely to the area around the UN headquarters in New York, the Iranian mission and the ambassador's residence.

The UN resolution, proposed by Cyprus on behalf of Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica and Ivory Coast, was approved by consensus without being put to a vote.

Unlike those passed by the Security Council, General Assembly resolutions are not binding but do have political weight.

Without naming specific countries, the text was mainly aimed at the restrictions imposed on Iran, as well as the visa denials to Russia's delegation during last September's General Assembly, diplomats said.

The resolution said the UN "urges the host country to remove all remaining travel restrictions imposed by it on staff of certain missions and staff members of the Secretariat of certain nationalities."

The UN "takes seriously" the travel restrictions and arguments of the "two Missions" that say they are hindered in their functions, the text added.

Tensions between the US and Iran have risen since May last year when President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 multinational deal with Iran aimed at curbing its nuclear program and began reimposing sanctions.

In September, while participating in the annual General Assembly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complained he was unable to visit the country's UN ambassador in a US hospital.

The UN also "expresses serious concern regarding the non-issuance of entry visas to certain representatives of certain Member States," the resolution said, referring to 18 Russian diplomats who were denied US visas, also in September.

They were supposed to participate in various UN committees until December.

According to UN diplomats, during a lunch organized by the White House in early December for members of the UN Security Council, Russia's ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia stressed to Trump that the denied visas were damaging to the United States' image as host country.

The US president said he was not aware of the issue and asked his team to look into the matter, the diplomats said.

The visa refusals have led to work delays for the concerned committees. The UN is considering the possibility of hosting sessions in the Geneva or Vienna headquarters in 2020 if the problem continues.

Photo: Wikicommons

European Leaders Say Iran Behind Saudi Attack, Urge Dialogue

The leaders of France, Germany and Britain on Monday agreed that Iran carried out this month's attack on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and called on Tehran to choose dialogue over further "provocation."

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed the conclusion of the United States on the blasts at the Abqaiq and Khurais facilities.

"It is clear for us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other explanation," they said in a joint statement released by France after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

But the three countries—which remain party to a nuclear deal with Iran from which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States—said the solution was diplomacy

"We call on Iran to commit to such a dialogue and to avoid any new provocation and escalation," they said.

"The attacks also highlight the need for a de-escalation in the region, for sustained diplomatic efforts and engagement with all sides."

The three nations said that they remained committed to the 2015 agreement with Iran that was negotiated under former president Barack Obama.

They called on Iran to come back into strict compliance.

Iran has taken several steps including installing centrifuges that are more advanced than allowed as a way to voice anger at not receiving sanctions relief promised under the deal.

Photo: IRNA

Rouhani Heads to UN in Bid to Win Iran Support Against 'Cruel' US

By David Vujanovic

President Hassan Rouhani set off for New York on Monday to attend the UN General Assembly on a mission to win Iran support against "cruel" pressure from arch-foe the United States.

His departure came as Iran said an oil tanker flying the flag of US ally Britain was "free" to leave more than two months after its forces seized it in sensitive Gulf waters.

Speaking before boarding his flight, Rouhani said his delegation was heading to the UN gathering despite reluctance from President Donald Trump's administration to issue them visas.

Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads since May last year when Trump abandoned a 2015 nuclear deal and subsequently began reimposing sanctions on Iran in a stated campaign of "maximum pressure".

"When the Americans aren't willing (to let Iran participate), we must insist on travelling," Rouhani said.

"It is essential for us to take part in the UN General Assembly and talk at various levels," he told a news conference at Tehran's Mehrabad airport.

"The cruel actions that have been taken against the Iranian nation and also the difficult and complicated issues that our region faces with them need to be explained to the people and countries of the world."

Tensions have flared in the Gulf since May this year when Iran began reducing its commitments under the nuclear deal and the US deployed military assets to the region.

The US has since formed a naval coalition with its allies Britain, Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to escort commercial ships, in response to a spate of incidents in the Gulf.

Saudi Escalation

The tensions escalated further in the wake of devastating September 14 attacks on Saudi oil installations that Washington and Riyadh have, to varying degrees, blamed on Tehran.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday his government was drawing a similar conclusion to its allies.

"The UK is attributing responsibility with a very high degree of probability to Iran" for the Saudi attacks, he said, quoted by the UK's Press Association news agency.

Johnson was himself en-route to New York, where he was scheduled to meet with Iran's president.

Long-fraught relations between London and Tehran were further soured after Iran seized the British-flagged Stena Impero on July 19 for allegedly breaking "international maritime laws".

Iran said on Monday that the tanker was "free" to leave after the completion of legal proceedings.

But government spokesman Ali Rabiei did not specify when the vessel, which is owned by a Swedish company, would set sail.

The Iranian announcement comes after a court in British overseas territory Gibraltar ordered the release of an Iranian oil tanker in mid-August despite an 11th-hour US legal bid to keep it in detention.

Before departing for New York, Rouhani said Iran would put forward a plan to de-escalate tensions in the Gulf during the UN meeting.

Under the plan dubbed the Hormuz Peace Endeavour, or HOPE, he said, "all the coastal states of the Persian Gulf are invited to join this coalition to provide and maintain regional security".

Rouhani said the Americans were "at the root" of conflicts in the region and their motive for blaming Iran was to deploy its forces in the Gulf and have access to its oil.

"It is clear that they want to own all of the oil that is in the east of Saudi Arabia.

"It is clear that the US has other goals and such incidents are their pretext to be more present in the region."

Rouhani-Trump Meeting Unlikely

Since pulling out of the nuclear deal, Washington has slapped sanctions on Tehran's armed forces, financial sector and top officials including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iran has responded by scaling back its commitments under the 2015 deal with world powers that gave it the promise of sanctions relief in return for limiting the scope of its nuclear programme.

The US has said it would make its case against Iran at the General Assembly.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US wanted to give diplomacy "every opportunity to succeed" in the wake of the attacks that set aflame Abqaiq plant and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Following the attacks, the US announced it was imposing further sanctions on Iran's central bank.

That may have dealt a final blow to efforts by France to arrange a meeting between Rouhani and Trump during the UN General Assembly.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Warns U.S. on Retaliation as It Denies Role in Saudi Attack

By Arsalan Shahla

President Hassan Rouhani said Iran is not looking for a war in the Persian Gulf following weekend strikes on Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil installation, as the Islamic Republic sent a cable to Washington formally denying any role.

The attacks raised the specter of a broader war in the Persian Gulf as any military retaliation by the Saudis and their U.S. ally could draw in Iranian proxy groups around the region, and provoke a dramatic spike in oil prices at a vulnerable time for the world economy.

The Iranian appeals come hours before Saudi Arabia unveils what it says is evidence of Iran’s involvement in the attack, which shook crude markets and slashed output at OPEC’s largest producer. U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is also due to arrive in the kingdom on Wednesday.

Addressing a cabinet meeting, Rouhani said the assault was carried out by Yemeni Houthi rebels retaliating against Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in their country and should serve as a “warning and lesson,” according to state TV.

Iran backs the Houthis, one of several militias it supports around the region, from Lebanon to Iraq. In its note sent to the U.S. via the Swiss embassy, Iran also warned it would respond “swiftly” to any action against it. The Swiss mission has represented U.S. interests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The U.S. has imposed swingeing sanctions on Iran’s economy -- especially its oil sales -- since exiting the landmark 2015 nuclear deal last year in an effort to curtail Tehran’s regional influence and military capabilities. Tightening U.S. sanctions have battered the Iranian currency, driving up prices and causing shortages. Iran is gradually scaling back its commitments under the deal and has said it will not reopen talks without sanctions relief.

The confrontation has sporadically convulsed the Gulf, with the strikes on oil tankers, an American drone and a key pipeline, pushing the region to the brink of open conflict. Saturday’s attack on the heart of the Saudi oil industry drove tensions to new heights.

While President Donald Trump hasn’t directly blamed Iran for the attacks, Pompeo has, and U.S. officials have said the location of the damage and weapons used suggest the attack was not launched from Yemen. The Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility and have carried out numerous strikes on Saudi territory during a four-year war with a military coalition led by the kingdom.

The U.S. and its Gulf allies “assumed the Iranians would take the maximum pressure without any significant reaction,” said David Roberts, an assistant professor at King’s College London who studies the Persian Gulf. “They’ve all been completely blindsided by the potent nature of the Iranian response.”

Even as Saudi oil behemoth Aramco fixes the damage at its Abqaiq facility, the possibility of further military conflict hangs over the oil market. Brent edged higher on Wednesday after tumbling Tuesday as Aramco said it had revived 41% of capacity at the crude-processing unit. It’s expected to return to pre-attack levels of about 4.9 million barrels by the end of September.

Trump —who said his country was “locked and loaded”—in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, has since dialed back his rhetoric, signaling that he expects Saudi leaders, who have bought billions of dollars of American military equipment, to lead and pay for any response.

The Pentagon is preparing a report on who was responsible and intends to make it public within 48 hours, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday. The official couldn’t confirm or deny a CBS News report that the U.S. has identified locations in southern Iran from which it believes more than 20 drones and cruise missiles were launched.

The prospect of a U.S. strike on Iran in retaliation for an attack that didn’t target Americans or even a country with which the U.S. has a defense treaty is proving divisive in Washington, with debate over whether Congressional approval would be needed.

“Trump is utterly loath to order military action near election time and the Saudis are aware ever more so of the growing vulnerability that they have,” Roberts said. “A meaningful diplomatic response is the most likely reaction from the U.S. and its allies.”

The violence has damped speculation, for now, that Trump might meet Rouhani at the annual United Nations General Assembly next week.

The president said on Tuesday that he doesn’t want to meet Rouhani in New York, as the Iranians weren’t “ready” for talks. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out negotiations with Washington at “any level” while country’s economy remained under sanctions.

State-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Wednesday that Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif may cancel their visits to the UN if the U.S. doesn’t issue visas “in the next few hours” potentially closing another opening for potential dialogue.

Photo: IRNA

US Urges UN to Extend Iran Arms Embargo, Travel Ban

The US urged the United Nations Tuesday to extend an arms embargo on Tehran that is due to expire next year as part of the embattled Iran nuclear deal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the UN Security Council that the clock was ticking on a resolution restricting weapons sales to Iran that is due to end in October 2020.

Pompeo warned that the expiration of provisions in Security Council Resolution 2231 would also see a travel ban on a key Iranian commander lifted.

"Time is drawing short to continue this activity of restricting Iran's capacity to foment its terror regime," he said.

"The international community will have plenty of time to see how long it has until Iran is unshackled to create new turmoil, and figure out what it must do to prevent that from happening," Pompeo added.

The resolution was passed as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal which the US, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain agreed with Tehran in 2015.

The landmark deal was designed to curb Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal last year and reinstated economic sanctions, sending tensions between Washington and Tehran soaring.

When the resolution expires next year, travel restrictions on Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, which operates abroad, and 23 other Iranians will be lifted.

"We believe that the UNSC has an important role to play to ensure that the arms embargo and the travel ban are continued," Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iran told reporters in New York ahead of Pompeo's remarks.

Trump's administration is currently pursuing a "maximum pressure" campaign designed to force the Islamic republic to limit its nuclear programme and military activities.

Iran has responded by suspending some of its commitments under the nuclear deal.

The situation has threatened to spiral out of control with ships attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized.

Meanwhile, the US has been struggling to piece together an international coalition to protect cargo ships travelling through the Gulf.

Allies are concerned about being dragged into conflict with Iran while European countries are trying to keep the nuclear deal alive.

Photo: Wikicommons

UN Concerned at US Limits on Iran FM's Access

The United Nations voiced concern Monday after the United States imposed unusually harsh restrictions on the movements of Iran's foreign minister, who was visiting the world body and also speaking on the soaring tensions between the countries.

Weeks after the United States threatened sanctions against Zarif, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington issued him a visa but forbade him from moving beyond six blocks of Iran's UN mission in Midtown Manhattan.

"US diplomats don't roam around Tehran, so we don't see any reason for Iranian diplomats to roam freely around New York City, either," Pompeo told The Washington Post.

"Foreign Minister Zarif, he uses the freedoms of the United States to come here and spread malign propaganda," he said.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the UN Secretariat was in contact with the US and Iranian missions about Zarif's travel restrictions and "has conveyed its concerns to the host country."

The United States, as host of the United Nations, has an agreement to issue visas promptly to foreign diplomats on UN business and only rarely declines.

Washington generally bars diplomats of hostile nations from traveling outside a 40-kilometer (25-mile) radius of New York's Columbus Circle.

Zarif is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the UN Economic and Social Council, which is holding a high-level meeting on sustainable development.

Even from the confines of the mission, Zarif—a US-educated academic who speaks fluent English sprinkled with self-effacing humor—sought to take his message to the media, as is his wont on UN trips.

The Iranian mission tweeted photos of Zarif speaking to NBC News as well as the BBC.

Despite the restrictions, the decision to admit Zarif is the latest sign that President Donald Trump's administration appears to be retreating from its vow to place sanctions on Zarif as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on June 24 that sanctions against Zarif would come later that week.

Critics questioned the legal rationale for targeting Zarif and noted that sanctions would all but end the possibility of dialogue—which Trump has said is his goal.

Zarif said in an interview with The New York Times he would not be affected by sanctions as he owns no assets outside of Iran.

Trump last year left a denuclearization accord negotiated by Zarif with six nations including the United States under former president Barack Obama and instead imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran's economy, vowing to curb Tehran's regional role.

With tensions escalating, Trump ordered military strikes on Iran last month after it shot down a US spy drone, although he canceled the operation at the 11th hour, saying it would be disproportionate.

No US diplomats are based in Iran as the two countries broke off relations in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Western-oriented shah.

Photo: IRNA

Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Has U.S. Weighing Sanctions ‘Snapback’

By David Wainer and Daniel Flatley

Iran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment is prompting debate over whether the U.S. should—or even can—invoke a threat that negotiators built into the 2015 nuclear agreement but hoped would never be used: a “snapback” of international sanctions.

Although President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord last year, the administration is being pressured by some American hard-liners to invoke a mechanism that ultimately would trigger a return to United Nations Security Council sanctions beyond those the U.S. is already imposing unilaterally.

Such a move, if successful, would shred what’s left of European-led efforts to keep the multinational accord alive, and analysts and diplomats say it would be galling coming from the nation that was first to quit the deal.

“Do I think there’s an argument to be made for snapping back? Sure,” said Richard Nephew, who was the lead sanctions expert for the Obama administration team that negotiated the 2015 accord. “Do I think the rest of the council agrees? No. It’s not clear people would stay in their chairs during discussions if we invoked this.”

Nephew, now a senior research scholar at Columbia University, said the snapback was designed to give the U.S. unilateral privileges to restore sanctions through the Security Council. At the time, the provision was a major part of Secretary of State John Kerry’s pitch for Congress to acquiesce to the deal. It’s also something that an “America First” president like Trump would like.

Under the snapback clause, any of the signatories to the Iran accord can cite Iran for violating the accord in a complaint to a dispute resolution committee. The matter eventually could be brought before the Security Council, which could vote on a resolution to keep the previous sanctions from going back into force. But the U.S. could get its way by exercising its veto on the council.

It’s no easy fix: The process could take two months or longer. And in today’s circumstances, other participants in the deal would be likely to argue that the U.S. is no longer allowed to invoke the mechanism.

To get around a dispute over whether the U.S. has standing to initiate the snapback mechanism, American officials are leaning on France and the U.K. to consider exercising it. The Europeans are signaling they’re not at that point yet, but they are using the American threats to put pressure on Iran to restrain itself, according to Western diplomats at the UN.

A senior European diplomat whose country still supports the accord said any decision to implement the snapback wouldn’t be automatic but predicted that support for it will grow unless Iran’s government changes its behavior.

A trio of hard-line U.S. senators say the White House doesn’t need to wait for the Europeans to start the process.

“Your administration has refrained from invoking the snapback mechanism in United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 2231, which if invoked would restore international restrictions against Iranian uranium enrichment, plutonium-related heavy water work, and ballistic missile development,” Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton said in a letter to Trump.

The UN resolution defines “the United States as a participant for the purpose of invoking the mechanism,” they said. “We urge you to do so."

Using Pressure

Even without the snapback provision, the U.S. has instituted punishing sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports and its broader economy. European nations have been trying to salvage the deal by offering barter provisions that would sidestep the U.S. banking system—with little success so far—even as they warn Iran against continuing to violate the deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.

In a briefing last month, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters that his country wants to remain in the accord but that Europe needs to deliver stronger economic incentives, and quickly.

Against that backdrop, tensions between the U.S. and Iran have surged. The Trump administration has blamed Iran in recent weeks for sabotaging oil tankers near the the Strait of Hormuz and for downing an American drone over international waters. Tehran denies it was behind the tanker attacks and says the drone was shot down over its territory.

Resisting the U.S.

A meeting in Vienna on Wednesday foreshadowed just how explosive any efforts for a snapback would be. The U.S. sought a special meeting of nuclear inspectors to increase pressure against Iran. Instead, the Americans drew pushback from Russia, China and Europe, all of whom blame the Trump administration for the crisis.

France, Germany and the U.K. issued a joint statement on the eve of the meeting saying that while they were concerned by Iran’s violations, it’s the job of the remaining participants in the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to address disputes.

“The EU deeply regrets the U.S. withdrawal and calls on all countries to refrain from taking any actions that impede the implementation of the JCPOA commitments,” it said.

Trump, who has a long history of pushing allies and adversaries toward the edge of conflict, will have to decide if it’s time to test the snapback provision.

"It is certainly a topic of significant ongoing conversation within the administration," Cruz of Texas said in an interview. "We should invoke those sanctions.”

Photo: IRNA

Iran Sees 'Revival' of Imperilled Lake Urmia

It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran's great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilizing and officials see the start of a revival.

A rusty cargo ship and a row of colorful pedal boats lying untouched on the bone-dry basin are a sign of the devastating loss of water in what was once the largest lake in the Middle East. 

Situated in the mountains of northwest Iran, Lake Urmia is fed by 13 rivers and designated as a site of international importance under the UN Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.

The lake has been shrinking since 1995, according to the UN Environment Program, due to a combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams.

By August 2011 the lake's surface was 2,366 square kilometres (914 square miles) and shrank drastically to just 700 km2 in 2013, according to the United Nations.

The catastrophe has threatened the habitat of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollute nearby cities and farms.

That finally triggered a coordinated effort to save the lake in 2013—with a joint program between Iran and the UN Development Program funded by the Japanese government.

The project became a priority for the incoming administration of President Hassan Rouhani. 

"One of my promises was to revive Urmia lake, and I am still committed to that promise," Rouhani said during a recent visit to the region. 

Some positive results are finally emerging and the lake's surface area reached 2,300 km2 last year, according to UN Development Program figures.

"This is the beginning of the lake's revival," said Abolfazl Abesht, who heads the wetlands unit of Iran's environment department.

He warned it would take "decades" to return to the 5,000 km2 it once covered, but at least "now the trend has stopped".

Sustainable Farming

Rising temperatures and reduced rainfall have been a major factor in the lake's decline, experts say. 

So, too, was the construction of a causeway in 2008 to shorten driving times between Urmia and the nearby city of Tabriz that cut the lake in two.

But people were also a major part of the problem due to a rapid rise in the population and farming around the lake, which provides a livelihood to some six million people. 

The rejuvenation effort therefore focused on redirecting rivers to irrigate farmland, thus avoiding use of water from the lake, and the promotion of more sustainable farming methods. 

“Almost 85 percent of the water is used for agriculture, and we are trying to help farmers reduce usage through cheap and effective techniques," said Abesht. 

Measures such as using natural instead of chemical fertilizers, or leveling the land to avoid run-off, have shown major improvements for local farmer Afshin Medadi.

The 47-year-old had to invest in new equipment, but says "things are more cost-effective now", with his farm using a tenth of the water.

There has also been a noticeable reduction in the salt and dust pollution whipped up from the desiccated lake floor during storms, he added. 

Others have launched their own green initiatives.

One group of 20 women set up a collective to raise awareness among lakeside communities about water waste, and encourage the production of handicrafts to boost sustainable employment. 

One of the organisers, 39-year-old Kobra Asghari from the village of Gharehgozlou, hopes industries such as carpet and doll-making can gradually overtake traditional farming. 

They are also encouraging women to plant less thirsty crops such as saffron and olives.

“We gradually managed to encourage the men to do the same," she said. 

"People are paying more attention to their environment and the dying ecosystem."

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Hails Yemen Peace Talks as 'Promising'

Iran on Thursday hailed breakthroughs made in the UN-brokered peace talks between warring parties in Yemen as "promising", adding it hoped future negotiations would bring about a final agreement.

"We welcome the agreements between the two sides overseen by the representative of the United Nations secretary general and see the positive steps and the preliminary agreements for continued talks as promising," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the breakthroughs in Sweden, where representatives of the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government and Houthi rebels held talks on ending the conflict, which has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Guterres said the warring sides agreed to a ceasefire in the lifeline port of Hodeida, and that all forces would be withdrawn from the city and its harbor.

The United Nations, he said, would play a "leading role" in monitoring the rebel-held port and facilitate aid access for the civilian population.

"This shows that Yemeni groups present in the talks well understand the sorry situation of Yemen's people, and have preferred preventing the worsening of the country's situation and the continuation of receiving humanitarian aid to their own interests," Ghasemi said.

He said Iran had played a "constructive role" in arranging the talks.

Brokered by UN special envoy Martin Griffiths earlier this month, the negotiations were the first between warring sides since 2016, when talks collapsed after more than three months.

The week-long round closed Thursday, but left a number of key issues unresolved. 

A new round of talks is scheduled for the end of January.

Impoverished Yemen has been mired in fighting between the Houthi rebels and troops loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi since 2014.

But the war escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition stepped in on the government's side.

The conflict has since killed nearly 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. But other rights groups believe the actual toll to be far higher.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Iran Urges West to End 'Absurdities' on Missiles

Iran on Thursday urged the United States and its allies to stop their "absurd" accusations about Iranian missile tests, a day after Washington urged the UN to adopt punitive measures against Tehran. 

"US & allies should cease their hypocritical absurdities about Iran's missiles," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter.

"Facts speak for themselves. It's they who sell USD 100s of billions in arms to butcher Yemenis," he added, referring to the devastating Saudi-led war backed by the West against Yemen rebels. 

Beneath the text, Zarif published a graphic detailing arms exports to Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2017 using figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The US accounted for 61 percent of those arms sales to Riyadh, Britain made up 23 percent of sales, and deals from France accounted for four percent, 
according to the chart.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to take punitive action against Iran to limit its ballistic missile program, which Washington says poses a threat to the region and beyond. 

A day earlier, Iran confirmed it had carried out a missile test and reiterated its intention to keep up ballistic activities despite Western condemnation.

Paris and London said Tehran's test was "provocative" but called for dialogue with Iran rather than sanctions as demanded by the US. 

Iran reined in most of its nuclear program under a landmark 2015 deal with major powers, which the US walked away from in May, but has continued to develop its ballistic missile technology.

UN Security Council Resolution 2231 adopted after the agreement calls on Iran to refrain from testing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, but does not specifically bar Tehran from missile launches.

Tehran says it has no intention of acquiring atomic weapons and that its missile development programs are purely defensive and comply with the resolution. 

Photo Credit: