The United States’ main objective is to take Iran’s case to the United Nations Security Council once again, making it essential for Tehran to prevent the formation of an international consensus over alleged security issues, a senior diplomat said.
“Any measure that would portray Iran as a security threat in the international community plays into the US hands,” Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Monday, IRNA reported.
He was addressing a meeting with other top directors of the ministry and First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri.
US President Donald Trump quit the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers two years ago on the grounds that it is “defective” and does not include all areas of western concern.
He restored tough sanctions on Tehran afterwards and initiated a so-called “maximum pressure” campaign to force Iranian leaders to renegotiate a new deal.
According to Araqchi, as the policy has failed to deliver the desired result, the US is now trying to take the issue to the UNSC by convincing the international community that Iran is posing a security threat.
“This is a dangerous game and if we get involved in this game, Iran will incur strategic losses,” he warned.
“The US is pursuing this agenda partly through the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Directors.”
The board has recently adopted a resolution, urging Iran to allow IAEA inspectors into two sites that it suspected of past nuclear activity.
Iran has denied access to the sites, arguing that the inspection request was based on inadmissible data provided by Israeli secret intelligence services.
“Israelis have claimed they had evidence and the agency has made the requests based on those fake documents,” Araqchi said.
The draft resolution was submitted by France, Britain and Germany, three European parties to the nuclear deal that seem to be joining US maximum pressure policies.
To destroy all benefits of the nuclear agreement, the Trump administration has also initiated a campaign to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran, which is to expire in October as per the terms of UNSC Resolution 2231 that endorsed the deal.
Two Agendas
The senior diplomat noted that the US has gathered all its strength for months to make these sanctions permanent and revive the inspection regime based on Resolution 1929 that allows all countries to inspect Iranian cargo.
As per UNSCR 1929, which was adopted in 2010, states were required to inspect any Iranian vessel on their territory suspected of carrying prohibited cargo, including banned conventional arms or sensitive nuclear or missile items.
Washington has threatened to trigger the return of all UN sanctions if its related draft resolution fails to win the approval of UN Security Council.
China and Russia have opposed the move, saying the full implementation of the nuclear deal was essential to its survival.
They have also stressed that the US has no right to trigger the so-called snapback of sanctions, because it has already abandoned the deal and violated Resolution 2231.
Araqchi said the Foreign Ministry is following two agendas in resisting US pressure: to help address the economic issues caused by American policies and to prevent a global consensus against the country.
“We have so far managed to prevent a complete global agreement against Iran, in a way that China, Russia and seven other countries did not join the American-led campaign in the meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Governors,” he said.
Pointing to the upcoming US presidential elections and the tough challenge facing Trump, Araqchi said Iran should not give the US an opportunity to use it as a tool in its electoral campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment