Winning the battle against the United States over stopping “snap-back” sanctions over possible violations of the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] AKA “the Iranian Nuke Deal,” remaining signers rebuffed U.S. calls for more sanctions. Since backing out of the JCPOA May 8, 2018, 74-year-old President Donald Trump tried to send Tehran a message that Iran cannot continue to terrorize the Middle East while hiding behind the JCPOA, an international agreement signed by the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany, all committed to restricting Iran’s uranium enrichment program. When the JCPOA was completed, it was hailed by former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry as an historic agreement designed to keep Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something the international community feared.
To pull of the agreement Obama offered Iran $1.8 billion in cash and $150 billion in sanctions relief, unfreezing Iranian assets, something held back for years. Over objections from Iran’s 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Kerry pulled off the agreement with Iran’s 60-year-old, U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, both of whom spent two years grinding out the deal. Trump didn’t like the deal because Iran took the cash and financed its proxy war in Yemen against Saudi Arabia, culminating in a missile attack Sept. 14, 2018, destroying 50% of Saudi’s oil refining capacity. While Iran denied the charges, there was no other explanation other that Iran supplying guided missiles to Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack the Kingdom. Trump also didn’t like Iran supplying arms-and-cash to Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Since 2018, the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran, preventing Iran from selling oil in world markets, causing Iran’s Rial currency to plummet to record lows. Now called the 4+!, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, they’ve done everything possible to preserve the JCPOA, believing, despite Trump, that keeping the agreement is better that chucking it completely. “Fortunately, yesterday in Vienna, the 4+1 clearly stated that they stand by the JCPOA and that America does not have the right to misuse it,” said 71-year-old Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani admonished the U.S. for reneging on the agreement, claiming Iran did nothing to violate it. “They have not only pulled out of the JCPOA but also punished whoever has abided by it,” referring to threats made by 56-year-old U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an Iranian hawk that pushed hard, but didn’t get, “snap-back” sanctions.
Once Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement, the Quartet did everything possible to keep the agreement intact. Simply put, the 4+1 couldn’t see how ending the agreement of keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Locked into the agreement, the 4+1 couldn’t see the linkage between Iran’s continuation of the JCPOA and Iran’s proxy wars against Saudi Arabia and Israel. Trump and Pompeo’s call for “snap-back” sanctions made no sense to anyone in the Security Council because the U.S. no longer had legal standing once they pulled out of the JCPOA. European Union’s senior official Helga Schmid who chaired talks in Vienna said the 4+1 “were united in resolve to preserve” the Iranian Nuke Deal. Defying U.S. demands to end the agreement, the Security Council sent the U.S. a loud message that unilateral diplomacy doesn’t work in a multilateral body.
Pompeo has pressured the U.N. Security Council since 2018 to adopt tougher sanctions to get Iran to stop its proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. Whatever mischief Iran’s up to in other areas, the 4+1 has disconnected Iran’s malign activities from its uranium enrichment program. Rouhani acknowledged today in a talk with Security Council rotating president Abdou Abarry of Niger that he “shared out views” that the U.S. could not impose “snap-back” sanctions on Iran. Whether admitted or not by Pompeo, the possible outcome has happened with Iran adhering to the JCPOA while, at the same time, dealing with U.S. unilateral sanctions for Iran’s proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel. If the U.S. really wants more global security, it’s better that the JCPOA remains in force for the foreseeable future, even though Iran continues in proxy wars in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Iran gets the last laugh today at Trump and Pompeo, preserving the July 15, 2015 JCPOA, while, at the same time, keeping its relationship with the 4+1 and European Union. Trump’s hard-line policies, demanding more defense spending for NATO and picking a fight with the U.N.’s World Health Organization [WHO] over the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 global pandemic, hasn’t helped. Going it alone with U.S. foreign policy has created problems dealing in the U.N. and E.U.. When it comes to the EU, they’re not happy that Trump supported the June 23, 2016 Brexit vote that resulted in the U.K. leaving the EU Jan. 31. Sticking together against the U.S., the Security Council, especially China, found a way to get back at the U.S. for blaming it for the deadly coronavirus global pandemic. Whether the U.S. goes along with the U.N. or EU or goes its own way, it’s always blamed.
