Iranian MP warns of firm response if UN sanctions return

Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, welcomed the move by Britain, France and Germany to trigger the snapback of UN sanctions on Iran, calling it a necessary response to Tehran’s “nuclear extortion and terrorism.”

In a statement on Thursday, Risch said the Security Council must now “reject the Islamic Republic of Iran’s continued threats and deceptions” and enforce a full return of sanctions, including the arms embargo and restrictions on Iran’s nuclear scientists.

“The Security Council has an opportunity in earnest to reclaim some of its legitimacy,” Risch said. “This is a good step, but now the hard work begins.”

He added that he looks forward to working with the Trump administration to ensure compliance and hold violators accountable.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi warned on Thursday that the snapback process initiated by European powers could affect negotiations with Iran over restoring access to key nuclear sites.

Asked by CNN whether the sanctions push would impact talks between the IAEA and Tehran, Grossi said, “Everything is interconnected and it's the same people at different tables… so we cannot say that there is no impact.”

Grossi urged all sides to use the 30-day window before UN sanctions are reinstated to find a solution. “If within this 30-day period we can, together with Iran, the IAEA can establish a good mechanism to return to the places and especially to verify or to check what happened with the material, with the 60% high-enriched uranium, I think there will be positive elements on the table that perhaps could help avert this possibility of this wide-ranging sanctions,” he said.

While acknowledging that the snapback move is political, Grossi described the discussions with Iran as “a very straightforward, technical conversation,” centered on the IAEA’s need to inspect certain locations.

An Iranian member of parliament on Thursday said he was urgently drafting legislation to pull Tehran from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as retaliation for a move by European states to reimpose UN sanctions.

The plan, MP Hossein Ali Haji-Deligani told the Tasnim news agency, could be approved by parliament as early as next week.

The NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970, allows countries to acquire civilian nuclear power but bars the pursuit of atomic weapons and mandates cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Other measures that are regrettable for the key countries of the snapback will also be taken," he added without elaborating.

"There is no one in Iran who does not believe that negotiations with these countries are useless, so we must stop all our negotiations with them until they stop this duplicitous behavior."

"Will Europe live in a safer world if they use this dispute resolution mechanism in bad faith in order to go back to Security Council resolutions that we all decided to stop? What are they trying to gain? They try to support Israel," former top nuclear negotiator Mohammad-Javad Zarif told Foreign Policy in an interview.

Speaking before the Germany, Britain and France triggered a mechanism from the 2015 international nuclear deal the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to reimpose UN sanctions, Zarif said the troika was abusing that agreement.

"I don’t know what audacity they have in order to try to use the dispute resolution mechanism. It’s not called snapback in the JCPOA or the (United Nations) Security Council. It’s called 'dispute resolution mechanism.'"

The relative moderate added that the snapback move was part of an Israeli-Western strategy to confront Iran and thwart diplomacy.

"They use war, and then they use diplomacy, and then they use mechanisms to resolve disputes. This is indicative of bad faith."

Iran could face fresh shocks to its already deeply rattled currency, costs of living and growth prospects if UN sanctions lifted by a 2015 nuclear deal are reimposed.

Activation of the snapback mechanism would reinstate comprehensive UN sanctions which would include travel bans, asset freezes, UN inspections of Iranian shipments and arms trade prohibitions—but notably exclude direct sanctions on oil exports or the Central Bank of Iran.

Renewed UN sanctions would indirectly reduce oil revenues, constrain access to foreign currency and place heavy pressure on the rial.

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