Pompeo Deploys All Efforts to Extend Arms Embargo on Tehran
Iran
Asharq Al-Awsat
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is preparing a legal argument that Washington remains a participant in the Iran nuclear accord in an intricate strategy to pressure the United Nations Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran, according to a report by The New York Times. The US started to circulate a new resolution in the Security Council that would bar countries from exporting conventional arms to Iran after the current ban expires in October. As Russia, Iran's ally, and China were expected to oppose the move, reports said that the Russians have already told US and European officials they are eager to resume conventional arms sales to Iran. Pompeo has approved a plan, bound to be opposed by many of Washington’s European allies, under which the United States would, in essence, claim it legally remains a “participant state” in the nuclear accord that Trump has denounced — but only for the purposes of invoking a “snapback” that would restore the UN sanctions on Iran that were in place before the accord. This autumn, in the weeks before the presidential election, a diplomatic battle will play during which the administration could go beyond imposing harsher sanctions on Iran, it could also force Tehran to give up any pretense of preserving the Obama-era agreement. The New York Times cited Pompeo as saying: “We cannot allow the Islamic Republic of Iran to purchase conventional weapons in six months. President Obama should never have agreed to end the UN arms embargo.” “We are prepared to exercise all of our diplomatic options to ensure the arms embargo stays in place at the UN Security Council,” he added. The arms embargo — along with limits on missile launches — was part of a United Nations Security Council resolution that enshrined the nuclear accord, and suspended years of UN-imposed sanctions. That is what begins to expire in October, but restrictions on missiles and their components remain in place for another three years. The US draft says that “Iran shall not supply, sell or transfer, directly or indirectly, from its territory, by its nationals or using its flag vessels or aircraft, any arms or related materiel, and that all member states shall prohibit the procurement of such items from Iran by their nationals, or using their flagged vessels or aircraft, and whether or not originating in the territory of Iran.” The US expects Russia to veto the resolution in the Security Council. In response, the US would then attempt to declare that it remains at this moment a participant state in the agreement and thus would declare that Iran is violating the agreement because it is now producing nuclear fuel above the limits in the accord. For his part, Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Twitter to Pompeo's plan saying: 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, AFP reported.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2256716/pompeo-deploys-all-efforts-extend-arms-embargo-tehran
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