Iran: Sanctions cannot be restored

Despite the US administration’s repeated statements that sanctions will be revived if Tehran cheats on the nuclear deal, the Iranians say it cannot happen.

By Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

The Obama administration has repeatedly asserted that sanctions on Iran can be revived if Tehran is caught cheating on the agreement it signed with six world powers regarding its nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, however, is boasting that international sanctions against the Islamic Republic have collapsed and cannot be re-imposed.

US Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP/Carlos Barria)

“The structure of the sanctions that the US had built based on the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) resolutions was destroyed, and like the 1990s, when no other country complied with the US sanctions against Iran, no one will accept the return of the sanctions (in the future),” Zarif said on Monday, according the Iranian Fars news agency.

Zarif dismissed Western officials’ remarks that the sanctions could be restored within a short period of time. Such a process would require “several years,” while Tehran’s “return to its past nuclear activities can be done in a shorter time if the world powers don’t remain committed to their undertakings,” he declared

As soon as the deal comes into force, all sanctions against the Islamic Republic, including the financial, banking, energy, insurance, transportation, precious metals and even arms and proliferation sanctions will not merely be suspended, but completely terminated, according to the agreement.

In the meantime, many countries are already standing in line to do business with Iran, regardless of their compliance with the nuclear deal.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a document on Tuesday titled “Deficiencies in the Iran nuclear deal,” listing all the problems with the accord.

Together with issues concerning inspections of suspicious nuclear sites, Iran’s rearmament and other details, the document warns that it would be impossible to reinstitute the sanctions on Iran, even if it returns to its nuclear development.

“In theory, any of the P5 Powers can reinstate the sanctions through the UN Security Council and no veto is permitted,” the document reads.

“However, according to the agreement and repetitive statements by Iran, should the “snap back option” [re-imposing of sanctions] be utilized, Iran will withdraw from the agreement. Hence, any of the five states that believes that the snap back option should be deployed can only do so if it is willing to bear the consequences: the dissolution of the agreement. This creates a strong deterrent effect against activating “snap back” of the sanctions,” Israel warned, in essence agreeing with Tehran that such an option is not plausible.

Iran nuclear dealObama AdministrationZarif