Sweeping UN sanctions look likely to return on Iran despite a last-ditch effort yesterday by China and Russia for a delay to allow further talks, diplomats said.
European powers were urging Iran to reverse a series of steps it took after Israel and the US bombed its nuclear sites in June.
Complaining that Iran has not complied with a landmark, but moribund deal, the Europeans have triggered a return of sweeping UN sanctions — notably on its banking and oil sectors — that are set to take effect at the end of today.
Photo: Reuters
China and Russia at a UN Security Council session yesterday put forward a draft resolution that would give another half year for talks, or until April 18 next year.
However, diplomats said they did not expect it to receive the nine votes on the 15-member Security Council for passage.
French President Emmanuel Macron met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday and said a deal was possible to avoid the sanctions, but that Iran had only hours left.
One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late on Thursday that the Europeans believed they had “done everything to try to move things,” but that Iran did not offer the desired flexibility.
France — speaking for itself, Germany and the UK — has told Iran it must allow full access to UN nuclear inspectors, immediately resume nuclear negotiations and offer transparency on highly enriched uranium, the whereabouts of which has been the subject of speculation.
The 2015 deal, negotiated during then US-president Barack Obama’s presidency, lifted sanctions in return for Iran drastically scaling back its controversial nuclear work.
US President Donald Trump in his first term withdrew from the deal and imposed sweeping unilateral US sanctions, while pushing the Europeans to do likewise.
The Chinese and Russian draft resolution, in a reference to the US, would call on all initial parties to the deal to “immediately resume negotiations.”
On Thursday, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi met with his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, to discuss the row.
Araghchi “strongly criticized the position of the three European countries as unjustified, illegal and irresponsible,” the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who had been negotiating with Iran until Israel attacked, on Wednesday said that Iran was in a “tough position,” but also held out hope for a solution.
“I think that we have no desire to hurt them. We have a desire, however, to either realize a permanent solution and negotiate around snapbacks,” Witkoff told the Concordia summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“If we can’t, then snapbacks will be what they are. They’re the right medicine,” Witkoff said.
Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons, pointing to an edict by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and US intelligence has not concluded that the country has decided to build a nuclear weapon.
However, Israel, the US and European countries have long been skeptical due to the country’s advanced nuclear work, believing it could quickly pursue a bomb if it so decided.
Standing at the General Assembly rostrum this week, Pezeshkian showed pictures of people killed in the 12-day Israeli military campaign against Iran in June, which Tehran says killed more than 1,000 people.
The US joined in the campaign on June 22, striking several of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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