Iran Slams UK, France, Germany’s Snapback Sanctions

The UK, France, and Germany, also known as E3, have no moral and legal standing to demand “snapback sanctions” against Iran under the now defunct nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed in an article.

Araghchi warned that E3’s failure to realize the gravity of their mistake on the Iranian question will not only put the peace in the region in grave danger but will also erode their remaining credibility in global politics.

Araghchi outlined Iran’s position on the recent E3 move to initiate the formal process of invoking “snapback sanctions” against his country in a letter to the UN Security Council, published as an article in the Guardian on Sunday, September 7.

Noting that, “for more than two decades, Europe has been at the heart of the ongoing, manufactured crisis over my country’s peaceful nuclear program” Araghchi underlined that it “has reflected the state of broader international power relations.”

“Once a moderating force aspiring to restrain a belligerent America with maximalist aims in our region, Europe is today enabling the excesses of Washington,” Araghchi accused.

Claiming that “E3 gambit lacks any legal standing, chiefly because it ignores the sequence of events that led Iran to adopt a lawful remedial measures under” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as the 2015 nuclear deal is known formally.

E3 along with Iran, the US, China and Russia are the signatories of the JCPOA which imposed limitations on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting all international sanctions imposed prior to its signing under Resolution 2231 adopted by the UNSC.

E3 failed the nuclear deal

After the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA under Donald Trump’s first term in 2018 and imposed sanctions against Iran, the E3 failed, Iran has claimed, to take up a firm stand against successive US administrations to make them abide by the treaty they all had signed. This forced Iran to adopt counter measures as provisioned in the treaty.

The E3 after failing in its own responsibility under the nuclear deal is now blaming Iran for violating the provisions of the JCPOA and has joined the US and is pushing the UNSC to reimpose the international sanctions.

“The three countries want the world to forget that it was the US, and not Iran, that unilaterally ended participation” in the JCPOA, Araghchi underlined. They are also “omitting how they failed to uphold their part of the bargain, not to mention their outrageous welcoming of the bombing of Iran in June.”

The E3 countries did not condemn the Israeli aggression against Iran in June which killed over a thousand people including some top military leadership and scientists. The US later joined the Israeli bombings and targeted Iran’s nuclear sites.

Germany, one of the signatories of the JCPOA, even praised Israel’s aggression, proclaiming it was doing what Europeans should have done.

Araghchi declared that E3 failed to live up to most of the promises it made at the time of the signing of the JCPOA. They failed to buy Iranian oil and gas as they promised they would in case Iran agrees to the limitations imposed on its nuclear program. They submitted to the unilateral sanctions of the US against Iran and terminated their trade relations with Iran, seemingly forgetting they are sovereign countries.

Diplomacy before its too late

Ironically when E3 failed to uphold their own obligations, they expected “Iran to unilaterally accept all restrictions,” Araghchi said, claiming their failure to be just will ultimately compromise their global standing and credibility and they will be further sidelined in diplomacy in future.

Their “reckless course of action [against Iran]” with the hope that it would “provide them with a seat at the table with other issues” with the US, is already proving to be misplaced, Araghchi claimed, clearly hinting at how the US has been using tariffs and other means to threaten the economic interests of European countries and sidelining Europe in dealing with Russia over Ukraine.

The Europeans have failed to realize that Trump does not consider them equals and demands their complete submission on matters it is involved in, Araghchi argued. He cited the example of the recently concluded meeting on Ukraine in the White House as an example, as all European leaders had to cast away their reservations and express their readiness for a “peace process” with Russia.

Despite all the provocations, Araghchi assured, Iran is still open for diplomatic engagements. He advised the E3 and the US to act, stating that “failing to seize on this fleeting window of opportunity may have consequences destructive for the region.”

“If Europe truly wants a diplomatic solution, and if President Trump wants the bandwidth to focus on real issues that are not manufactured in Tel Aviv, they need to give diplomacy the time and space that it needs to succeed,” Araghchi concluded.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch