Iran Focus
New York, 20 Jul – The United Nations Security Council on Monday endorsed a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, but it will be able to re-impose UN penalties during the next decade if Tehran breaches the historic agreement.
The 15-member body unanimously adopted a resolution that was negotiated as part of the agreement reached in Vienna last week between Iran and the P5+1 states.
In return for lifting US, EU and UN sanctions, Iran will be subjected to long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West suspected was aimed at creating an atomic bomb, but which Tehran says is peaceful.
Passage of the resolution triggers a complex set of coordinated steps agreed by Iran during nearly two years of talks with the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the European Union.
It says that no sanctions relief will be implemented until the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) submits a report to the Security Council verifying that Iran has taken certain nuclear-related measures outlined in the agreement.
“While this deal does not address many of our profound concerns, if implemented it would make the world safer and more secure”, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said during Monday morning’s session.
“If Iran seizes that opportunity, if it abides by the commitments that it agreed to in this deal… then it will find the international community and the United States willing to provide a path out of isolation and toward greater engagement”, she said. “We hope Iran’s government will chose that path”.
The deal would “cut off all pathways” for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Power said, “while putting in place a rigorous inspection and transparency regime to verify Iran’s compliance”.
Under the deal, the major powers don’t need to take any further action for 90 days. Then they are required to begin preparations so they are able to lift sanctions as soon as the IAEA verification report is submitted.
The European Union approved the Iran nuclear deal with world powers on Monday. US President Barack Obama’s administration has sent the nuclear agreement to Congress, which has the next 60 days to review it.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in a round of interviews that aired Sunday, defended the deal they negotiated with Iran, saying that it leaves the Middle East safer and that there is no viable alternative.
“The real fear of that region should be that you don’t have the deal”, Kerry said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union”.
The agreement finalized last week in Vienna has come under heavy criticism from Republicans in Congress, which could vote to reject it.
Once sanctions relief can be implemented, seven previous UN resolutions will be terminated and the measures contained in the resolution adopted on Monday will come into effect.
The resolution allows for supply of ballistic missile technology and heavy weapons, such as tanks and attack helicopters, to Iran with Security Council approval, but the United States has pledged to veto any such requests.
The restrictions on ballistic missile technology are in place for eight years and on heavy weapons for five years. The resolution leaves in place an arms embargo on conventional weapons for five years.
The resolution places restrictions on the transfer to Iran of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes for a decade.
It allows all UN sanctions to be re-imposed if Iran breaches the deal in the next 10 years. If the Security Council receives a complaint of a breach it would then need to vote within 30 days on a resolution to extend sanctions relief.
If the Security Council fails to vote on a resolution, the sanctions would be automatically re-imposed. This procedure prevents any of the veto powers who negotiated the accord, such as Russia and China, from blocking any snap-back of Iran sanctions. All the provisions and measures of the UN resolution would terminate in a decade if the nuclear deal is adhered to.
However, the six world powers and the EU wrote to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week to inform him that after 10 years they plan to seek a five-year extension of the mechanism allowing sanctions to be re-imposed.
Based in part on wire reports
