Bloomberg News cited the officials as making the remarks on condition of anonymity in a feature that it ran on Tuesday.
The United States has expressed a resolve to have the embargo on the sales of conventional weapons to Iran prolonged. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo first announced the intention and Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters last week, “We are operating under the assumption that we will be able to renew the arms embargo.”
The ban is to expire by October under the 2015 nuclear deal, and Washington is legally prohibited from seeking its extension as it left the deal in May 2018.
Hook claimed that if the other members of the United Nations Security Council— the UK, France, Russia, and China — would not fall into step with Washington’s drive, then, “we are well within our rights” to force a “snapback” of all UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The Bloomberg report, however, noted, “That’s not an interpretation many countries agree with,” and warned that the administration of US President Donald Trump was risking “escalating tensions with allies” as it sought to renew the embargo.
Even if the US manages to bring about the so-called snapback, its effect “would be largely symbolic,” the piece noted.
The article was apparently suggesting that potential reinstatement of the UN sanctions would not be considerably affecting Iran that has already weathered the effects of the sanctions that the US reinstated after leaving the deal, through its “Resistive Economy” and cooperation with its traditional allies and neighbors.
Besides, “renewing the arms embargo won’t be easy,” Bloomberg said, referring to expected stiff opposition by other veto-wielders Security Council members Russia and China that have, on all occasions, blasted the US for leaving the nuclear deal and returning its sanctions.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif addressed the US’s intensions concerning the moribund embargo and Washington’s misconceptions about it.
The nuclear agreement was ratified by the Security Council in the form of Resolution 2231 upon conclusion in Vienna in July 2015.
“Pompeo pretends UNSCR 2231 is independent from #JCPOA,” the Iranian top diplomat tweeted.
“He should READ 2231. JCPOA is PART of 2231. That’s why it’s 104 pages—& why he’s not read it,” he added.
Zarif then outlined a number of factual information about both the resolution and the nuclear deal that he gathered under the sobering “2231 for Dummies” heading.
