The United States said yesterday that it intends to punish violators of the arms embargo imposed by the United Nations on Iran, which Washington says will remain in effect and will not expire next month, as stipulated in the Iranian nuclear agreement. In return, Tehran has requested the International Court of Justice to issue a decision to lift the US sanctions as null in view of international law.
The United States' representative for Venezuela and Iran, Elliott Abrams, said that his country "may prevent any party that trades weapons with Iran from entering the American market," and President Donald Trump's administration accuses Iran's authorities of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.
Yesterday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that the United States will ensure that all countries of the world implement all the UN sanctions imposed on Tehran.
The sanctions that Washington is talking about this time include the embargo on the supply of conventional weapons to Iran, which expires next October, and which President Trump's administration failed to extend at the UN Security Council last month.
The scope of the sanctions
The US envoy Elliot Abrams told reporters yesterday that "all the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Iran will be re-imposed at the end of this week at eight in the evening on Saturday," that is, at midnight Sunday GMT.
Abrams added that the arms embargo on Iran would be extended "indefinitely," and that many activities related to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program would be included in the sanctions.
In 2018, the US administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement concluded in 2015, under which Tehran limited its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, and Washington gradually reimposed severe sanctions on Tehran within the framework of a policy of exercising maximum pressure to force Iran to sign a new agreement on its program. Nuclear, which is rejected by Tehran.
Washington also says that it has implemented a mechanism in the Iran nuclear deal that provides for the re-imposition of all United Nations sanctions on Iran, but the rest of the parties to the nuclear agreement (Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia) and most of the UN Security Council members said they do not believe that the United States can reimpose sanctions. The United Nations on Iran, because it withdrew from the nuclear deal.
"It's like pulling the trigger without a bullet coming out," said a senior diplomat at the Security Council, requesting anonymity. "There will be no return, the sanctions will remain suspended, and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deal) will remain in place."
On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described the opposition Washington faces in its efforts to impose sanctions on his country as "a victory for the Iranian nation, and a shameful defeat for the United States in activating the mechanism for re-imposing sanctions."
The United States of America has officially started the procedures for activating the "Snapback" mechanism to return all UN sanctions against Iran. The first steps will be by submitting an implementation request - within a month - to the United Nations, which may face opposition in the vote, and then a new crisis opens the way for America to increase its measures. Mono https://t.co/VxTAVpqWAN
- Christophe (@Cresstove) August 20, 2020
Legal path
On the other hand, Iran asked the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, to issue a decision to lift the US sanctions imposed on it, considering that they are void from the point of view of international law.
In the lawsuit it brought against the United States, Iran relied on a friendship treaty signed between the two countries in 1955, which regulates trade and consular relations between them.
Iran's lawyers said in their arguments before the court that the sanctions imposed by the United States directly affect the Iranian economy and harm the population, in addition to other parties that do business with Iran, which are in contradiction to the Treaty of Friendship.
On the other hand, US attorneys said in the first session on Monday that the treaty was inconsistent with what they described as Iran's hostilities against the United States, and representatives of the US government emphasized that the International Court of Justice does not have the power to hear this case brought by Iran after the withdrawal America from the nuclear deal.
The case continues until next Monday, for the court to decide at its conclusion if the consideration of the dispute is within its jurisdiction.