A UN Security Council committee is split over whether Iran’s missile tests last year violated UN sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Australia’s UN envoy said on Monday.
That division effectively rules out any expansion of sanctions against Tehran over the tests for the time being, UN envoys said on condition of anonymity.
Diplomats said it was Russia, backed by China, that refused to declare Tehran’s missile launches a violation of the UN restrictions, as the UN Iran Panel of Experts said was the case.
The rift on the Iran sanctions committee, which consists of all 15 Security Council members, highlights the difficulties Western powers face in persuading Russia and China to join them in keeping up the pressure on Tehran to halt banned nuclear and missile work.
Iran rejects allegations by the US, European powers and their allies that it is developing an atomic weapons capability. It says the UN sanctions against it are illegal and refuses to comply with them.
As long as the sanctions committee remains divided, it will be difficult for the Security Council to add names of any Iranian individuals or entities linked to the missile tests, council diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
Australian UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan, chairman of the committee, told the council that “a number of committee members expressed the view ... that the launches constituted a clear violation of [UN sanctions] and that therefore all member states should redouble their efforts to implement ballistic missile-related sanctions on Iran.”
“At this stage some committee members cannot share this view,” he added in his latest three-month report to the council.
The tests involved the launch of Iranian Shahab missiles in July last year during the “Great Prophet 7” military exercises.
“These included launches of the Shahab 1 and 3, Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Tondar missiles, as well as an anti-ship ballistic missile, the Khalij Fars,” the Iran Panel of Experts said in its May report to the Iran sanctions committee.
The panel said those exercises were conducted by the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Russia led the dissenters in rejecting the view that the tests were a clear violation of UN sanctions, , diplomats said.
A Russian delegate explained Moscow’s position to the council, saying “hasty conclusions not based on facts must be avoided.”
A Chinese delegate reiterated Beijing’s stance: “We are not in favor of increased new pressure or new sanctions against Iran.”
US Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo told reporters: “We’re disappointed that the committee was unable in this case to state the obvious.”
“There is nothing ambiguous about the ban imposed by the Security Council on such ... missile launches,” she said. “Most of the Security Council members agree with us on this issue.”
Quinlan’s report also referred to alleged arms embargo violations.
Western powers accuse Iran of supplying arms to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside al-Assad’s troops in Syria to defeat rebels in the civil war there.
“Several committee members stated that the evidence presented in the report was sufficient to assert that Iran was in violation of its obligations, illustrating a pattern of sanctions evasion through arms smuggling in the Middle East,” his report said.
“Other committee members stated that the lack of stronger evidence as to the provenance of the arms, such as documentation, justified the lack of a definitive conclusion,” the report added.
Russia and China were the “other committee members” who opposed finding Tehran in clear violation of the UN ban on Iranian arms exports, council diplomats said.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS