US moves to restore UN sanctions against Iran - State Department

The U.S. is restoring the UN sanctions that were suspended under the Iran deal and is open to any ideas on extending the arms embargo too, outgoing State Department Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters on Friday.

"No one can argue that this terrorist regime deserves sanctions relief. I have yet to hear anybody make the argument that Iran’s behavior merits sanctions relief," Hook said during a conference call organized by the State Department's Foreign Press Center.

Restoring sanctions means "many good things are going to happen", he claimed, mentioning the arms embargo, missile restrictions, a prohibition on Iran’s ballistic missile testing, etc. Washington will also freeze the assets and restrict the travel of Iranians who work on the nuclear program and on missiles, and those Iranians who foment terror.

"The UN is going to be restoring sanctions on Iranian banks that finance Iran’s nuclear and missile program. And restoring sanctions will encourage UN member states to interdict shipments of Iranian weapons into conflict zones," he added.

Broadly, restoring UN sanctions "will put more pressure on Iran to behave like a normal nation and come back to the negotiating table."

"We need a new deal to address the full range of Iran’s malign behavior and to protect the American people and our partners in the Middle East.  And in the meantime, deal or no deal, President Trump will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon," he said.

In a major break between longstanding allies, on Friday, France, Britain and Germany rejected use of the U.S. snapback, calling it “incompatible with our current efforts to support the Iran deal.”

The State Department in response lashed back in a harsh language, accusing the three allies of “siding with the ayatollahs.”

Hook said whatever the comments from other countries, the mechanism had been activated, and could not be blocked. “The Security Council at the end of 30 days is going to have all of the UN sanctions restored,” he said.

When asked what did Washington hope Iran’s next-door neighbors, such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, took away from the latest developments, given that Tehran has expanded trade with its immediate neighbors, Hook said, in terms of Iran diversifying its economy, "it’s not doing a very good job because the IMF ranked Iran as having the third worst performing economy in the world." The only two countries that are in worse shape are Libya and Venezuela.

"This is because the Iranian regime is a kleptocratic government – it robs its own people to finance its malign activities around the region," he said. 

Washington had offered to Iran "to come to the table and negotiate or you can manage economic collapse", something that Tehran rejected.

"We’re going to continue to stand with the Iranian people.  They don’t –  the Iranian people do not believe in death to America, death to Israel. The Iranian regime is facing a crisis of legitimacy and credibility with its own people.  And so we have the right policy matrix in place.  We hope that the regime starts making better decisions for its own people," Hook concluded.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.