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.”
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Signed in 2015, the deal freed up the Iranian economy by lifting sanctions in exchange for Iran agreeing to halt its nuclear program. The deal was President Obama’s signature diplomatic achievement, and was backed by some of America’s closest allies, Britain, France and Germany, as well as its strongest foes, China and Russia.
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“We can’t allow the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons,” Mr. Pompeo, the administration’s leading voice on Iran, told reporters in Vienna before Friday’s vote. “I mean, that’s just nuts.”
But Mr. Pompeo’s was a lonely voice in support of the measure, which had been put forth by the United States.
Of the 15 countries on the Security Council, only one, the Dominican Republic, joined the United States in supporting the proposal. Major U.S. allies — Britain, France and Germany — all abstained from the vote, making a promised veto by Russia and China unnecessary. Of the 15 countries on the Security Council, Russian and China voted against the proposal and 11 countries abstained.
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Judging from the statements of Mr. Pompeo and Ms. Craft, the United States has little patience for continued debate over the embargo.
US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo nannte das Ergebnis „unentschuldbar“.…
Es ist allerdings umstritten, ob die USA zum Auslösen des Snapback überhaupt berechtigt sind, denn die Trump-Regierung ist 2018 aus dem Atomdeal ausgestiegen. Die Amerikaner sind der Auffassung, dass ihre Nennung in der UN-Resolution ausreicht, die das Atomabkommen in internationales Recht übersetzt. Die anderen Länder des Atomabkommens sehen das anders.
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Die USA hatten zuletzt ihren Ton in Richtung Deutschlands, Frankreichs und Großbritanniens deutlich verschärft: „Verletzte Gefühle über den Rückzug der USA aus dem Atomabkommen sind für mich keine Entschuldigung für die Bewaffnung von Terroristen“, sagte die amerikanische UN-Botschafterin Craft der Deutschen Presse-Agentur.
WARSAW — Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo sealed a defense cooperation deal Saturday with Polish officials that will pave the way to redeploy American troops from Germany to Poland.
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Saturday’s signing came just a day after the Trump administration suffered an embarrassing diplomatic loss at the United Nations, where its proposal to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran was soundly defeated in a U.N. Security Council vote that saw only one country side with the U.S. Pompeo will visit that country — the Dominican Republic — on Sunday for the inauguration of its new president.
Pompeo said in Warsaw that it was “unfortunate” that France and Britain — permanent members of the Security Council — did not support the U.S. position and that Washington would continue to press the issue.
“The United States simply wanted the keep the same rules that have been in place since 2007,” he said. “I think there are a lot of people who understand that it is not in the world’s best interest to allow this arms embargo to expire. I hope they find the courage to say so publicly.”
Pompeo has used his Europe trip to warn the region’s young democracies about threats posed by Russia and China.
In his response to the vote, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, lashed out at other member states.
“The Security Council’s failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable,” he said in a statement issued even before the result of the vote had been declared.
US officials have said that following the defeat of the arms embargo resolution, they would embark within days on a legally controversial tactic in an effort to restore UN sanctions lifted when Iran signed a nuclear deal with major powers in 2015.
The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has a mechanism that allows any of the parties to the agreement to “snap back” UN sanctions on Iran.
Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA in 2018 but US diplomats and lawyers will argue it is still technically a party to the agreement and therefore empowered to snap back sanctions. Most of the rest of the world, including some of Washington’s closest allies, disagrees, but the Trump administration has so far shown itself ready to proceed virtually alone.
“The US goal this week has pretty obviously been to table a resolution that will fail, so they’ve got an excuse for going to snapback next week,” Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group.
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If the US proceeds with its snapback plan, it could lead to a situation in which there is no agreement on the status of UN arms sanctions, with the US declaring they are in effect and most other countries insisting there are not.
“Frankly, we’re soon going to be entering what you could call ‘security council in Wonderland’, by which the US will claim that the snapback train is rolling and others refuse to accept that,” Gowan said. “There will be lots of procedural fights in the council. But basically there will be two realities.”
