US extremists try to block US comeback to JCPOA: Analyst

Tehran, Aug 23, IRNA – Shireen Hunter, US senior foreign policy analyst said that the US extremists try to block US comeback to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among those willing to restore all United Nations sanctions on Iran any way they can. Trump administration is seeking to restore all UN sanctions on Iran any way it can, but 13 members of the UN Security Council have opposed Washington's request, said Shireen Hunter speaking to IRNA. Last June, the White House announced that it would present a resolution to the UNSC to extend Iran arms embargo, which was roundly turned down on August 15. Only the US and Dominican Republic gave a yes to the draft resolution. After a week, Pompeo himself came on stage to urge the UN to restore all sanctions on Iran by the snapback invocation accusing Iran to have violated its JCPOA commitments. Pompeo delivered a letter to the UN on Friday for snapback invocation against Iran in order to bring back in 30 days the sanctions lifted by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the UNSCR 2231, four permanent and nine non-permanent members of the Security Council declared that Washington’s demand has no legal basis. Hunter, a research professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington DC, told IRNA that the Dominican Republic that accompanied the US in its first attempt in the UNSC to reinstate sanctions on Iran has kept silent about the second attempt so far. Hunter said it seems even if the UNSC rejects the issue, the US will keep trying to restore sanctions on Iran using other pretexts. Answering a question about how US insistence on returning the sanction and other countries' rejecting it will affect the UNSC, she said it need to be taken into consideration that the UNSC has always been under big powers' influence from day one and that there is veto right in it, which shows this international body is not independent. Saying the UNSC is successful when its permanent members agree with each other about an issue, she added that the question is whether or not the other powers, like China, Russian and European States are willing to counter the US effectively about Iran. Therefore, it is not unlikely that the US try what she called extra-legislative veto to reach its goal, she said. The professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC said that the European states are now more than before worried about tensions with Iran and at the same time, they are not willing to suffer more economic loss. But they don’t worry about the snapback mechanism for they have already reduced their economic ties with Iran, Hunter said, adding that the US has put itself in a tough situation; they hoped that the Islamic System would disintegrate or a civil war would happen in Iran, but no such a thing happened. Hunter also said that the military option is a dangerous and costly one for the US to use against Iran; the US and the region may be engaged in a long-term war, which Washington does not want. Hunter said the main question is that if Pompeo can let go of vengeance and find another solution for the problem with Iran. If things change and there is peace between the two countries, the US presidents are powerful enough to make the Congress stand by them, Hunter said.