CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration’s assertion that a key U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution predicates the lifting of arms and ballistic missile restrictions on Iran to Tehran’s willingness simply to come to the negotiating table, is evidently wrong.
Security Council resolution 1929 of 2010 does not say the restrictions will be lifted if Iran merely enters negotiations, as Secretary of State John Kerry and others have stated repeatedly since the nuclear deal was finalized on July 14.
Instead, paragraph 37 of the resolution says the measures will be lifted after Iran “suspends all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities,” to allow for negotiations; and after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has certified that Iran has fully complied with its obligations under relevant Security Council resolutions passed earlier, as well as with IAEA requirements relating to its nuclear activities.
Iran has neither suspended “all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities,” nor has the IAEA determined that Iran has complied with all of the relevant obligations and requirements. On the contrary, the IAEA has stated in numerous reports that Iran is contravening its obligations to suspend uranium enrichment and other activities.
Since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was announced, the administration has come under fire over the fact that it provides for a lifting of the conventional arms embargo and missile trade restrictions.
The two areas – conventional arms and ballistic missiles – are not directly linked to the nuclear program (even though they were included in earlier Security Council resolutions relating to the nuclear issue). This prompted critics to ask why the U.S. allowed Iran to insert them into the nuclear talks, even as it acceded to Iran’s refusal to include other non-nuclear issues on the agenda, such as the imprisonment of U.S. citizens in Iran.
Pushing back, the administration has characterized the issue as a diplomatic victory on its part, saying that P5+1 partners Russia and China wanted those sanctions lifted immediately, but that the U.S. and European allies stood firm, and succeeded in winning a five-year delay for a lifting of the arms embargo, and an eight-year delay in the case of the missile sanctions.
And in making the argument, Kerry in particular has pointed repeatedly to resolution 1929.
Most recently, he did so at an event at the Council of Foreign Relations on Friday.
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