Britain, France, Germany Say UN Sanctions Relief for Iran to Continue

Britain, France and Germany told the UN Security Council on Friday that UN sanctions relief for Iran - agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal - would continue beyond Sept. 20, when the United States asserts that all the measures should be re-imposed. In a letter to the 15-member body, seen by Reuters, the three European parties to the nuclear deal and long-time US allies said any decision or action taken to re-impose UN sanctions “would be incapable of legal effect.” The United States quit the nuclear deal in 2018. “We have worked tirelessly to preserve the nuclear agreement and remain committed to do so,” said the UN envoys for Britain, France and Germany, adding that they remain committed to “fully implementing” a 2015 Security Council resolution that enshrines the pact, which also included Russia and China.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that he triggered a 30-day process at the Security Council leading to a return of UN sanctions on Iran on Saturday (2000 EDT/0000 GMT Sunday) that would also prevent a conventional arms embargo on Tehran from expiring on Oct. 18.

But 13 of the Security Council members say Washington’s move is void because it is no longer a party to the nuclear deal. The United States say it can make the move because the 2015 Security Council resolution still names it as a participant. Diplomats say few countries are likely to re-impose the measures, which were lifted under the deal that aimed to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.

US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order in the coming days allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates the UN arms embargo on Iran, sources have told Reuters, in a bid to reinforce the US assertion that the measure has been extended indefinitely beyond Oct. 18. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the executive order was expected to be issued in the coming days and would allow the president to punish violators with secondary sanctions, depriving them of access to the US market. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“It is obvious that none of the Security Council members have accepted the eligibility of US claims,” said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, adding that the nuclear deal remains in place and all sanctions on Iran will be lifted in under the time-lines agreed in 2015.

Trump’s executive order is intended to show that the United States will not be deterred despite failing to win broader UN Security Council backing “snap back,” said one of the four sources. Another of the sources, a European diplomat, said the new executive order would put teeth behind Washington’s assertion that the UN arms embargo would remain in place beyond October by giving the president secondary sanctions authority to punish arms transfers to or from Iran with US sanctions.

Secondary sanctions are those where one country seeks to punish a second country for trading with a third by barring access to its own market, a particularly powerful tool for the United States because of the size of its economy.

Most foreign companies do not wish to risk being excluded from the vast US market in order to trade with smaller countries such as Iran. The new executive order may be more symbolic than practical because so many Iranian entities and individuals are already subject to secondary sanctions, said one sanctions lawyer, Doug Jacobson.  “It’s essentially piling on,” Jacobson said. “It’s designed to send a message on this particular issue ... that the US is unhappy that the other parties (to the Iran nuclear deal) did not agree to a snap back of arms sanctions.”

Also on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo obliquely hinted at the upcoming US action by stressing the power of US sanctions restored since it abandoned the Iran nuclear deal two years ago to deter foreign trade with Iran. “We’ll do all the things we need to do to ensure that those sanctions are enforced,” Pompeo said of the UN arms embargo, recalling many experts argued US unilateral sanctions imposed after it abandoned the nuclear deal would fail. “We’ve been very successful in spite of what the world said would happen,” he added, saying US sanctions had drastically reduced Iran’s financial resources.

WHAT SANCTIONS WOULD ‘SNAPBACK’?

A return of U.N. sanctions, a so-called snapback, would require Iran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and ban imports of anything that could contribute to those activities or to development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.

It would re-impose the arms embargo, ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and bring back targeted sanctions on dozens of individuals and entities. Countries also would be urged to inspect shipments to and from Iran and authorized to seize any banned cargo. - Reuters