Pompeo vowed that the US will continue working to ensure that Iran’s “theocratic terror regime” is not free to buy and sell weapons.A US diplomatic source said American officials are working on the actual mechanism that will stop Iran from making arms deals.One option is to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran using a provision in the nuclear deal, known as “snapback sanctions,” even though US President Donald Trump abandoned the world powers’ 2015 agreement with Iran, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. Diplomats have said that Washington could do this as early as next week, but would face a messy legal battle.Diplomats have said several countries would argue that the US legally could not activate a return of sanctions and therefore simply would not reimpose the measures on Iran themselves.The move could put the fragile nuclear deal further at risk because Iran would lose a major incentive for limiting its nuclear activities, diplomatic sources said. Iran already has breached parts of the nuclear deal in response to the US withdrawal from the pact and unilateral sanctions.The US has argued that it can trigger a sanctions snapback, because a UN Security Council resolution enshrining the nuclear deal named Washington as a participant. But the remaining parties to the deal are opposed to the move.Another path for the US is to convince parties to the agreement that did not leave the JCPOA to trigger the snapback sanctions. Any single country or party to the agreement can bring back the sanctions. A diplomatic source said the US is trying persuade one or all of the E3 countries – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – to take action.Putin proposed a video summit with the US and the remaining parties to the nuclear deal – Britain, France, China, Germany, the EU and Iran – to try to avoid further “confrontation and escalation” at the UN over Iran.“The issue is urgent,” Putin said in a statement, adding that the alternative was “only further escalation of tensions, increasing risk of conflict – such a scenario must be avoided.”Putin said Russia, an ally of Iran in the Syrian civil war, remained fully committed to the nuclear deal.Asked if he would take part, Trump told reporters, “I hear there’s something, but I haven’t been told of it yet.” French President Emmanuel Macron is open to taking part in a video summit, the Elysée said.Trump has said he wants to negotiate a new deal with Iran that would prevent it from developing nuclear weapons and also curb its activities in the region and elsewhere. Trump, who has walked away from a series of international agreements, has dubbed the 2015 nuclear deal – reached under his predecessor Barack Obama – “the worst deal ever.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the UNSC decision “outrageous.”“Iranian aggression and terror threaten regional peace and the whole world,” Netanyahu said on Saturday. “Instead of opposing arms sales, the Security Council is encouraging it. We will continue to act in close cooperation with the US and countries in the region to block Iranian aggression.”Israel’s new Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said that “the Security Council’s decision to reject the US initiative to extend the arms embargo on Iran is a disgrace. Instead of allowing the terrorist regime in Tehran to acquire deadly weapons, the council should impose crippling sanctions on Iran. The Council has utterly failed in its responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. This decision will further destabilize the Middle East, and increase the spread of violence around the world.”US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft said her country is “sickened but not surprised” at the result of the vote.“The council’s failure to step up to this moral challenge serves to validate the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, just to save face and protect a failed political deal made outside the council. To those members who opposed or stood silently by on this resolution, I suggest they take their excuses and explanations to those most affected: the starving in Yemen, the displaced in Syria, the heartbroken in Lebanon,” she continued.The Chinese Mission to the UN released a statement as well, saying that “the overwhelming majority of Security Council members hold that the JCPOA and Security Council resolution 2231 must be defended and implemented. The US, not a participant to the JCPOA any more, has no right to demand the Security Council invoke a snap-back. Should the US insist, it is doomed to fail.”Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that “in its continual work towards a nuclear bomb and efforts to spread terror and violence, Iran is destabilizing peace in the region and in the entire world.“The choice made by the Security Council not to extend the arms embargo against Iran promoted by the US is the wrong decision and hurts regional stability and world security. Israel will continue to work with all of her partners in the world and in the Middle East to curb Iranian aggression,” he added.Eve Young contributed to this report.The @UN Security Council failed today to hold Iran accountable. It enabled the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell deadly weapons and ignored the demands of countries in the Middle East. America will continue to work to correct this mistake.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 14, 2020
UN Security Council rejects resolution to extend the arms embargo on Iran
Putin proposes summit of world leaders to avoid ‘confrontation;’ US weighing options to stop Iran from buying, selling weapons.
