The Chairman of the UN Security Council, Indonesia's permanent representative to the organization Dian Triansyah Jani said that he could not take action in response to the US request to launch a procedure for restoring sanctions against Iran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week referred a complaint to the Security Council Chairman about Iran's failure to comply with the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA) to launch the procedure for restoring anti-Iranian sanctions under resolution 2231.
During a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, France, Germany, Britain, China, Russia, South Africa, among others, explicitly stated that they did not believe the US had the right to launch a mechanism for restoring sanctions, since they withdrew from the JCPOA and were not parties to the deal.
Meanwhile, the US believes that it has every right to launch the restoration of sanctions, since, despite withdrawing from the JCPOA, they are mentioned in resolution 2231.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia asked the UN Security Council President to express his position on how he views the US notification.
"I have received letters from many member countries. And it is clear to me that there is one member that has the same position on the issue, and there is a significant number of member countries that hold different views. In my opinion, there is no consensus in the Council. Thus, the President is unable to take further action," said Triansyah Jani at the Security Council meeting.
Resolution 2231, adopted in 2015, contains a mechanism for automatically resuming UN sanctions against Iran if the country does not comply with its obligations under the JCPOA. This mechanism has been in effect for 10 years since 2015. The resolution assumes that if any serious violations by Iran are detected during this period, the country will be able to avoid sanctions only if the relevant UN Security Council resolution is adopted. If at least one of its permanent members speaks out against it, the sanctions will automatically be renewed within 30 days.
In July 2015, Iran and the six international negotiators reached a historic agreement to resolve the long-standing problem of the Iranian atom. Months of negotiations concluded with the adoption of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is completely removed from Iran's previously imposed economic and financial sanctions by the UN Security Council, US and EU. The agreement, in particular, provided that the arms embargo would be lifted from Iran within five years, and arms deliveries would be possible earlier, but only with the permission of the UN Security Council. The deal in its original form did not last three years: in May 2018, the US announced a unilateral withdrawal from it and the restoration of strict sanctions against Tehran.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS