Iran sanctions: US versus the world

The United States will unilaterally declare this weekend that UN sanctions against Iran are once again in force, a move that risks increasing Washington’s diplomatic isolation while also stoking international tensions. But on this point, Washington is almost alone in the world: All the other great powers - China, Russia and also the US’ own European allies - have challenged the claim.

The world community should oppose the United States’ use of sanctions to impose its will as a “bully,” or expect to face sanctions itself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif said yesterday.

US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, which is set to expire in October, four sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The Trump administration says that all United Nations sanctions on Iran have to be restored and the conventional arms embargo on the country will no longer expire in midOctober.

“The Americans as a rule act as a bully and impose sanction...The world community should decide how to act towards bullying,” Zarif told

Iranian state television hours before the US move aiming to restore UN sanctions against Iran.

“As they (other countries) will face the same thing tomorrow when America takes the same action towards the Nord Stream project, as well as other projects because a bully will continue to act as a bully if he is allowed to do it once,” Zarif said.

The United States and many European countries bitterly oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which they say will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and deprive transit states such as Poland and Ukraine of leverage over Russia.

The Trump administration says that all United Nations sanctions on Iran have to be restored and the conventional arms embargo on the country will no longer expire in mid-October