National
0

Ineffective Sanctions Signal American Desperation

Ineffective Sanctions Signal American Desperation
Ineffective Sanctions Signal American Desperation

The United States’ decision to restore new sanctions on Iran has no practical effect and only proves its desperation, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday. 
“It is a clear sign of desperation after its recent failures at the UN, which only added to the US isolation,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Twitter. 
Washington on Monday imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities involved in Iran’s nuclear, missile and conventional arms programs, claiming that all UN sanctions against Tehran are now resumed.
“The United States has now restored UN sanctions on Iran,” US President Donald Trump, who has not been authorized by the UN to speak on its behalf, said in a statement issued shortly after he signed an executive order how the US will enforce the “snapback” of sanctions. 
The announcement came in defiance of nearly all UN Security Council members, including US allies in Europe, who rejected America’s legal standing to reimpose the international sanctions eased under the 2015 nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
The US had already abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, but claimed that it remained an original participant under UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the deal and was therefore entitled to activate the so-called snapback process that would culminate in the resumption of global sanctions on Iran. 
“US will never see the return of terminated resolutions for—in int'l law—they are nonexistent,” Takht-Ravanchi said. 
The new sanctions include freezes on any assets that the targeted entities and individuals may have in US jurisdictions, bar Americans from doing business with them and, most importantly, open up foreign governments, companies and individuals to US penalties if they engage in transactions with them.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the administration was hitting more than two dozen Iranian individuals and institutions with penalties.

 

 

No Impact on AEOI 

Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi, who was among individuals targeted by the new American sanctions, said the restrictions have no impact on the process of AEOI’s nuclear activities. 
“More than being aimed at affecting Iran’s nuclear processes, they are designed to help the US deflect attention from its successive failures on the international stage and its isolation after a fruitless attempt to resume global sanctions,” he was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
Nearly all of the entities named on Monday were already subject to US unilateral sanctions and Trump's executive order appears to mainly affect Iranian and foreign entities involved in conventional weapons and ballistic missile activity.
Experts say the impetus behind the US action is the impending expiry of a UN arms embargo on Iran in October based on JCPOA and a desire to warn foreign actors that if they trade arms with Iran, they will face American sanctions.
“No matter who you are, if you violate the UN arms embargo on Iran, you risk sanctions,” Pompeo said.
Washington resorted to the snapback mechanism after its attempt to extend the arms ban indefinitely was rejected by the UN Security Council. 

Add new comment

Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints

Financialtribune.com