The United Nations’ sweeping economic and military sanctions look set to be reimposed on Iran a decade after they were lifted in a landmark international deal over its nuclear programme.
It comes after the UK, France and Germany wrote to the UN Security Council last month, accusing Iran of failing to fulfil its commitments. That triggered a mechanism giving Iran 30 days to find a diplomatic solution to avert renewed sanctions.
Tehran has now recalled its ambassadors to the UK, France and Germany in response, Iranian state media reports.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the re-imposition of international sanctions as “unfair, unjust, and illegal”.
He has rejected a US demand to hand over all of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium in return for a three-month exemption from sanctions, Pezeshkian added.
“Why would we put ourselves in such a trap and have a noose around our neck each month?” the president asked rhetorically as he left New York for Tehran on Saturday – days after addressing the UN General Assembly.
Pezeshkian has reiterated that Tehran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and blamed the US and Israel for intensifying pressure to try to bring down the Islamic republic.
A last-minute resolution to delay the move by six months, led by China and Russia, only received four votes in the 15-member council.
The sanctions are set to come into force at 00:00 GMT on Sunday.
Iran stepped up banned nuclear activity after the US quit the deal in 2016. Donald Trump pulled the US out in his first term as president, criticising the deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, as flawed.
Iran barred inspectors the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, from accessing its nuclear facilities after Israel and the US bombed several of its nuclear sites and military bases in June.
That was after negotiations between the US and Iran to try to reach a new nuclear deal became deadlocked.
President Pezeshkian told the UN this week that his country would never seek to build a nuclear bomb.
Speaking to a group of journalists, he accused foreign powers of seeking a superficial pretext to set the region ablaze, insisting that, despite previous threats, Iran would not quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But he added that Tehran would need reassurances that its nuclear facilities would not be attacked by Israel in order to normalise its nuclear enrichment programme.
Pezeshkian kept pointing to the negotiations which had taken place before the nuclear sites were bombed in June, and accused the Americans of not taking the talks seriously.
The sanctions add yet more strain to an already fraught situation. They include:
- an arms embargo
- a ban on uranium enrichment
- a ban on activity connected to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons
- a freeze of assets and a travel ban on Iranian figures and entities
- authorisation of countries to inspect Iran Air and Iran Shipping Lines cargo
Unless a solution is found, UN sanctions would come into force first, followed by EU sanctions next week.
European foreign ministers had tried to avert the council’s step by urging Iran to resume negotiations with the US; to cooperate with the IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency – and to account for its highly enriched uranium stockpile.
Speaking at the UN on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said: “The United States has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 (Britain, Germany and France) which have buried it.”
He added that the negotiations with the US are “a pure dead end”.
Iran is legally obliged under the nuclear treaty to allow inspections of its nuclear sites, and on Friday, the IAEA confirmed that they had resumed. But while Iran has been in talks with the IAEA to find a way forward, it has also warned that a return of sanctions will put that in jeopardy.
Western powers and the IAEA say they are not convinced by Iran’s insistence that its nuclear programme has purely peaceful purposes.
Russia on Friday signed a $25bn deal with Iran to build four nuclear power reactors in southern Iran, state-run IRNA news agency reported.
