Alwaght- Iran and Russia have condemned the UN Secretariat for overlooking the US’s brazen violations of international law and bringing up, instead, irrelevant issues in its latest assessment of the situation surrounding the 2015 Iran nuclear deal following Washington’s withdrawal.
The 2015 landmark deal between the Islamic Republic and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) plus Germany was endorsed in the form of UNSC Resolution 2231. The US withdrew from the deal in May and said it would re-impose nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran, therefore, violating both the deal and the resolution.
In a report to the Council on Wednesday, however, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Rosemary A. DiCarlo, sufficed to say that UN chief Antonio Guterres “deeply regrets this setback” to the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Guterres’ deputy, meanwhile, said the UN chief “calls on Iran to consider carefully the concerns expressed by Member States about Iranian activities,” including its conventional missile program as well as what is claimed to be Tehran’s arms transfer to Yemeni forces.
The Council was convening for the first time since the US’s withdrawal to discuss the JCPOA’s implementation and its future.
Report not comprehensive
Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholam-Ali Khoshroo said the report on the resolution’s implementation “is not comprehensive,” adding, “This is something that a number of Security Council members mentioned, too.”
Khoshroo said the UN chief should not pay any attention to “baseless and unfounded” claims by third parties. “Basically, the UN Secretariat is in no place to examine or comment on such reports,” he added.
“Iran’s mission has comprehensively conveyed its views to the Secretariat and Security Council members, and criticized the provisions of the UN chief’s report on Resolution 2231’s implementation,” the diplomat asserted.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday he is surprised that the organization has overlooked Washington’s violation of its resolution on the Iran nuclear deal.
US violated UN Resolution
"Bearing in mind the importance for the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) of the United States’ unilateral actions, we were utterly surprised that this situation is tackled in the report only in passing. It is absolutely incomprehensible how a report on the implementation of Resolution 2231 can be drawn without even mentioning the fact that Washington’s re-imposing unilateral sanctions is a flagrant violation of not only its liabilities under the JCPOA but also Resolution 2231," he told the UN Security Council.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the United Nations Secretary General’s report that was published on Wednesday clearly indicates that Iran is committed to its liabilities under the nuclear deal.
"The Secretary General’s report clearly says that Iran is unconditionally fulfilling its obligations under the JCPOA, which has been attested not only by the IAEA but also by the United Nations Secretariat, which, according to the document, has no evidence to the contrary," he said.
According to the Russian diplomat, not a single example of Iran’s alleged violation of Resolution 2231 cited in the document is proved by convincing evidence. "Once again, we have to stress that the UN Secretariat cannot conduct any investigations without a clear Security Council mandate for that," he noted.
