The defeat underscored America’s deepening global isolation on Iran. But for the Trump administration, the vote could open a separate path to try to inflict maximum damage on Iran.
The United States suffered an embarrassing diplomatic defeat on Friday when the United Nations Security Council rejected a proposal to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran, with even America’s strongest allies refusing to buckle under pressure from the Trump administration to take a harder line.
The defeat underscored America’s deepening global isolation on the issue of Iran. But for the Trump administration, the vote could open a separate path to try to inflict maximum damage on Iran ahead of November’s U.S. presidential election.
For months, Trump administration officials have warned that if the vote to extend the embargo failed, the United States would try to invoke a provision built into the Obama-era nuclear accord to punish any Iranian violations by reimposing all sanctions lifted when the deal took effect. That could include the prohibition of not just arms deals, but also oil sales and banking agreements. In theory, all U.N. members would have to adhere to the sanctions.
The provision, known as a snapback, would be devastating for Iran, which is already struggling with a moribund economy made worse by the coronavirus. Pursuing the snapback would also put the Trump administration at odds with America’s allies, which vehemently oppose it as legally dubious and potentially destabilizing to the region.
“The United States has every right to initiate snapback,” Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday night. “In the coming days, the United States will follow through on that promise to stop at nothing to extend the arms embargo.”
That could include trying to enforce the snapback sanctions unilaterally, without the support of allies.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the Security Council’s decision to scuttle the embargo provision, describing it Friday evening as “inexcusable.” While he did not say specifically that the United States would pursue the snapback option, he made clear that the Trump administration had not given up on the issue of Iranian weapons.
“We will continue to work to ensure that the theocratic terror regime does not have the freedom to purchase and sell weapons that threaten the heart of Europe, the Middle East and beyond,” Mr. Pompeo said.
While Friday’s vote was about the duration of the arms embargo, the heart of the dispute between the United States and its opponents on the Security Council is the nuclear deal.
Source : New York Times News
