US in push for UN ‘curbs’ on Iran ballistic missile program

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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12, (RTRS): Washington will push the UN Security Council to toughen its stance against Iran working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and carrying out ballistic missile launches, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

Pompeo also said an arms embargo on Iran should not be lifted in 2020 and called on the council to establish “inspection and interdiction measures, in ports and on the high seas, to thwart Iran’s continuing efforts to circumvent arms restrictions.”

“Iran is harboring al-Qaeda, supporting Taleban militants in Afghanistan, arming terrorists in Lebanon, facilitating illicit trade in Somali charcoal benefiting al-Shebab, and training and equipping Shia militias in Iraq,” Pompeo told a Security Council meeting on the implementation of UN sanctions on Iran. Russia and China – which are council veto powers along with the United States, France and Britain – are unlikely to support the measures proposed by Pompeo. In February Russia vetoed a Western attempt to have the Security Council call out Tehran in a resolution on Yemen.

A 2015 UN resolution “called upon” Iran to refrain for up to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Some states argue that the language does not make it obligatory. The United States wants the council to toughen that measure, Pompeo said, to reflect language in a 2010 resolution that left no room for interpretation by banning Iran from “activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.”

The United States, Britain and France have accused Tehran of flouting the current UN restrictions on Tehran’s missile program by carrying out ballistic missile launches. Iran says the missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons. Most UN sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted in January 2016 when the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran fulfilled commitments under a nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States.

But Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions. The UN sanctions and restrictions on Iran are contained in the 2015 resolution that also enshrines the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from in May. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the deal. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians on Wednesday to stay united, saying the United States would exploit divisions and was likely to launch plots against Iran in 2019.

Iran is struggling with the economic impact of Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers and re-impose sanctions. “Everyone should be vigilant, because our enemy America is sly and evil … and may have plans for 2019,” Khamenei said in a speech, the text of which was posted on his website. “But we are stronger than them and they will fail as they have in the past.”

The rial currency has lost about 60 percent of its value in 2018, as Iranians have increasingly sought dollars and gold coins to protect their savings. Factional tensions and worker protests have been on the rise as the sanctions have spurred inflation and unemployment. “My advice to the Iranian nation, especially the youth and the country’s various organisations, professional or political, is to be careful and not make matters easier for the enemy,” Khamenei said. Iran has accused the United States, Israel, regional rival Saudi Arabia and government opponents living in exile, of fomenting unrest.

Meanwhile, two launch units for anti- tank guided missiles recovered by a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen appear to have been manufactured in Iran during 2016 and 2017, according to a confidential United Nations report seen by Reuters on Tuesday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres does not specifically state whether the discovery of the units in Yemen was a violation of a UN resolution that took effect in January 2016. It prevents Iran from importing and exporting arms or related materiel unless the Security Council has given approval. “The Secretariat found that they had characteristics of Iranian manufacture and that their markings indicated production dates in 2016 and 2017,”

Guterres said in his biannual report to the Security Council on the implementation of sanctions on Iran. “The Secretariat also examined a partly disassembled surface-to-air missile seized by the Saudi-led coalition and observed that its features appeared to be consistent with those of an Iranian missile,” he wrote. A proxy war is playing out in Yemen between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015, backing government forces fighting the Iran-allied Houthis. The Houthis have been subject to a separate arms embargo since 2015. Iran has repeatedly denied supplying weapons to the Houthis. The UN Security Council is due to discuss the latest report from Guterres on Wednesday, diplomats said. The United States has loudly and unsuccessfully pushed the United Nations to hold Iran accountable over accusations it is meddling in the wars in Syria and Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. Top US diplomat Pompeo is scheduled to attend the Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

In February Russia vetoed a Western attempt to have the Security Council call out Tehran in a resolution on Yemen. Guterres also said the United Nations had examined the debris of three more ballistic missiles fired at Saudi Arabia on March 25 and April 11, 2018, and found “specific key design features consistent with those of the Iranian Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile.” It could not determine if it was a violation as it was unknown when they were transferred to Yemen, however.

He said the United Nations “is still working on establishing the production date range of guidance subcomponents with the assistance of the foreign manufacturers.” In his June report, Guterres said debris from five missiles fired at Saudi Arabia by the Houthis since July 2017 “share key design features with a known type of missile” manufactured by Iran and some components were manufactured in Iran, but also could not determine when they were transferred to Yemen. Most UN sanctions imposed on Iran were lifted in January 2016 when the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran fulfilled commitments under a nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States. But Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions. The UN sanctions and restrictions on Iran are contained in a resolution that also enshrines the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew Washington from in May. European powers have been scrambling to salvage the deal. In the UN report, Guterres called on all countries to “ensure the continuity of this agreement that is fundamental to regional and international peace and security.”

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