No action on UN Iran sanctions due to ‘uncertainty’, says Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Saturday he cannot take any action on a US declaration that all UN sanctions on Iran had been reimposed because “there would appear to be uncertainty” on the issue.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that he triggered a 30-day process at the council leading to the return of UN sanctions on Iran on Saturday evening that would also stop a conventional arms embargo on Tehran from expiring on October 18.

But 13 of the 15 Security Council members say Washington’s move is void because Pompeo used a mechanism agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which the US quit in 2018.

“There would appear to be uncertainty whether the process ... was indeed initiated and concomitantly whether the (sanctions) terminations ... continue in effect,” Guterres wrote in a letter to the council.

“It is not for the Secretary-General to proceed as if no such uncertainty exists,” he said.

UN officials provide administrative and technical support to the Security Council to implement its sanctions regimes and Guterres appoints independent experts to monitor implementation.

He said that “pending clarification” of the status of the Iran sanctions, he would not take any action to provide that support.

Washington argues it triggered the return of sanctions — known as “snapback ”— because a UN resolution that enshrines the pact still names it as a participant.

Diplomats say few countries are likely to reimpose the measures lifted under the 2015 deal that aimed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“If UN Member States fail to fulfil their obligations to implement these sanctions, the US is prepared to use our domestic authorities to impose consequences for those failures,” Pompeo said. —