US success in Iran arms embargo extension ‘very unlikely’: Expert

The United States is highly unlikely to succeed in extending the arms embargo on Iran, interdisciplinary Middle East scholar Neda Bolourchi told Al Arabiya on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he will try a controversial “snapback” to force a return of UN sanctions against Iran, after the Security Council rejected Washington’s bid to extend the arms embargo against the Islamic Republic.

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Bolourchi posed the question: “Will the rest of the Security Council allow a country who has said that it’s not part of the JCPOA, who has acted in a way that it is not part of the JCPOA to then complain?” before saying that it seems “very unlikely.”

Washington’s defeat at the Security Council on Friday highlighted its isolated stance on Iran since Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018. Only two of the Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the US resolution.

“The problem is nobody has in fact amended resolution 2231 to say that the United States is not a party to the JCPOA,” Bolourchi said.

If Trump follows through, the snapback could plunge the Council into one of its worst-ever diplomatic crises, experts warn.
European allies have been skeptical on whether Washington can force sanctions and say the attempt may delegitimize the Security Council.

“Even if we weren’t to include Russia or China, which are sort of seen as allies, if not partner states, with the Islamic Republic, you have the European Union that has at least rhetorically, if not in action, been trying to save this deal, so the best thing that I could say is that the Trump administration should be more surgical about its proposals, a little more narrowly tailored is the legal language we would use,” Bolourchi colcuded.

The embargo on conventional arms is due to expire on October 18.

- With AFP

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