Trump defiantly presses ‘UN’ sanctions against Iran

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he is imposing sanctions on Iranians for violating a United Nations arms embargo and is demanding enforcement by US allies, who roundly dispute that he has any such authority.

Trump’s defiant move came on Monday, the very day the United Nations was celebrating its 75th anniversary with a virtual summit full of calls for greater international cooperation.

The Trump administration said it was imposing sanctions on 27 individuals and entities under a UN resolution including Iran’s defence ministry, its Atomic Energy Organisation and Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington is trying to topple.

“The United States has now restored UN sanctions on Iran,” Trump said in a statement.

“My actions today send a clear message to the Iranian regime and those in the international community who refuse to stand up to Iran.”

The Trump administration argues that it is enforcing a UN arms embargo that Iran has violated, including through an attack on Saudi oil facilities.

The embargo on conventional arms shipments to Iran is set to expire next month after the United States failed to win support for a new UN resolution.

The Trump administration says it is “snapping back” virtually all UN sanctions on Iran as part of a 2015 nuclear accord with Teheran negotiated by former president Barack Obama.

Trump pulled out of the deal with fanfare in 2018 and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again on Monday called it an “abject failure”.

But Pompeo argues that the United States is still a “participant” in the deal – with the right to impose sanctions for violations – as it was listed in the resolution that blessed Obama’s diplomatic effort.

The legal argument has been rejected by almost the entire UN Security Council, with European allies of the United States saying the priority is to salvage a peaceful solution on Iran’s nuclear programme.