The UN reinstates ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program
On Sunday, the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran regarding its nuclear programme, intensifying pressure on Tehran amid ongoing high tensions in the broader Middle East due to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. This week at the UN General Assembly in New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made a final diplomatic effort to halt the sanctions. However, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, constrained their efforts by characterizing diplomacy with the United States as a sheer dead end. Meanwhile, attempts by China and Russia to stop the sanctions were unsuccessful on Friday. A 30-day countdown for the sanctions commenced when France, Germany, and the United Kingdom announced on Aug. 28 that Iran was not adhering to its 2015 nuclear agreement with global powers.
Tehran has contended, without success, that the agreement was rendered void by the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first administration. Since then, Iran has imposed significant limitations on the necessary inspections conducted by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, especially following the 12-day conflict that Israel initiated against Iran in June. The conflict resulted in both the US and Israel targeting significant Iranian nuclear facilities with airstrikes. “We don’t think it can impact the people of Iran, especially the people of Iran’s determination to defend their rights,” Araghchi said, despite the pressure already on the country’s economy. The question is, what impact does it have on diplomacy? It obstructed the path of diplomacy. Here’s what to understand regarding Iran’s nuclear sites, snapback sanctions, and other matters escalating tensions between Iran and the West. The snapback process, referred to by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was crafted to be immune to vetoes at the UN Security Council and commenced 30 days after the parties to the deal informed the Security Council of Iran’s non-compliance. It once more froze Iranian assets abroad, suspended arms deals with Tehran, and imposed penalties on any advancement of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, among other actions.
The authority to enforce snapback would have lapsed on October 18, which probably motivated the European nations to utilize it before the option was no longer available. Subsequently, any attempt at sanctions would have encountered a veto from UN Security Council members China and Russia, countries that have historically supported Iran. China continues to be a significant purchaser of Iranian crude oil, a situation that may be influenced if a snapback occurs, while Russia has depended on Iranian drones in its conflict with Ukraine. For decades, Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is peaceful. However, its officials are increasingly making threats to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, being the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons programme to engage in this activity. According to the original 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was permitted to enrich uranium to a purity of 3.67 percent and to keep a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 pounds). Reports says that Iran’s stockpile just before the war stood at 9,874.9 kilograms (21,770.4 pounds), which included 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent. That would enable Iran to construct multiple nuclear weapons, should it decide to pursue that path.
US intelligence agencies evaluate that Iran has not initiated a weapons programme; however, it has engaged in activities that enhance its capability to produce a nuclear device, should it decide to pursue that path. Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, situated approximately 220 kilometres (135 miles) southeast of Tehran, serves as the primary enrichment site for the country and had previously been subjected to Israeli airstrikes prior to the US attack in June. According to the IAEA, uranium had been enriched to as much as 60 per cent purity at the site, just a short step away from weapons grade, before Israel destroyed the aboveground portion of the facility. Another section of the facility located on Iran’s Central Plateau is situated underground to provide protection against airstrikes. It functions through several cascades, which are groups of centrifuges that collaborate to enhance the enrichment of uranium more efficiently. The IAEA has stated its belief that the majority, if not all, of these centrifuges were destroyed by an Israeli strike that severed power to the site. The US also deployed bunker-busting bombs on the site, likely causing significant damage. Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo, situated approximately 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Tehran, was also targeted by US bombardment using bunker-busting bombs. The US also targeted the Isfahan Nuclear Technology facility using smaller munitions.
Israel also targeted additional sites linked to the programme, such as the Arak heavy water reactor. Decades ago, Iran stood as one of the United States’ foremost allies in the Mideast, under the leadership of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. During this period, the Shah procured American military weapons and permitted CIA technicians to operate clandestine listening posts that monitored the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA orchestrated a coup in 1953 that solidified the shah’s authority. In January 1979, the ailing shah, suffering from cancer, departed Iran amidst escalating mass demonstrations opposing his regime. Then came the Islamic Revolution led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which established Iran’s theocratic government. Later that year, university students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, demanding the extradition of the shah and igniting the 444-day hostage crisis that resulted in the severance of diplomatic relations between Iran and the US.
In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, the United States provided support to Saddam Hussein. In the course of that conflict, the US executed a one-day assault that severely impacted Iran’s naval capabilities during the Tanker War. Subsequently, the American military shot down an Iranian commercial airliner, claiming it was a mistaken identification of a warplane. In the years that followed, Iran and the US have fluctuated between hostility and reluctant diplomacy, with relations reaching a high point during the 2015 nuclear agreement. However, Trump made the decision to withdraw America from the accord in 2018, which ignited tensions in the Mideast that continue to this day, exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s broader military actions throughout the region.
