US unilaterally ‘restores’ Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON: The US on Monday unilaterally “restored” a UN conventional arms embargo on Iran and slapped sweeping new sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals it said were involved in the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

Washington also designated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for “conventional arms-related activities” regarding Iran. He was charged earlier in the year by the US with narco-terrorism, corruption, drug-trafficking and other criminal offences, and carries a reward of $15 million for information leading to his arrest.

“The United States has now restored UN sanctions on Iran,” President Donald Trump said in a statement announcing the executive order he signed on the UN arms embargo and the new sanctions on 27 entities and individuals connected to Iran’s “proliferation networks”.

“The Iranian regime has repeatedly lied about its secret nuclear weapons archive and denied access to international inspectors, further exposing the deep flaws of the last administration’s failed nuclear deal from which I withdrew the United States,” he added, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran, US, UK, France, China and Russia and Germany. The deal had temporarily frozen Iranian nuclear weapons programme in return for lifting of all curbs and sanctions, including those related to conventional arms.

France, Britain and German have already rejected the US call to restore the UN sanctions for alleged violation of the nuclear deal, saying Washington did not have any authority to demand a “snapback” of curbs after having left the agreement.

The US has gone ahead nevertheless, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo told reporters on Monday, “We have made it very clear that every member state in the United Nations has a responsibility to report the sanctions.”

“That certainly includes the

United Kingdom, France and Germany. We will have every expectation that those nations enforce these sanctions.”

The UN Security Council had rejected in August a US proposal to snap back the 2010 UN embargo on sale of conventional arms to Iran. China and Russia had opposed it in a vote, and France, Germany and the UK had abstained.

Meanwhile, foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the US. This was a long-standing US demand.