White House Vow on Iran <br>Being Mocked at the U.N. <br>In Wake of Obama Pact

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The New York Sun

UNITED NATIONS — The White House vow to refer an Iranian launch of midrange ballistic missiles to the United Nations is being mocked here because last year’s nuclear deal has rendered the world body useless in the struggle to tame Iran’s military ambitions.

From deeply dug-silos deep in the Islamic republic, Iran on Tuesday launched several surface-to-surface missiles with a 450-mile range. Technically the test falls just short of violating the latest Security Council resolution on Iran, United Nations officials familiar with the matter told The New York Sun.

Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal reports that in Washington’s view, the Iranian test is “inconsistent” with the Security Council resolutions. “If confirmed, we intend to raise the matter in the U.N. Security Council,” the Journal quotes an a White House official as saying and adding: “We will also encourage a serious review of the incident and press for an appropriate response.”

If that sounds ominous, past experience shows that since the Iran nuclear deal was signed in August, punishing Iran has become an elusive project, even when everyone agreed that it had violated the council’s will. So it is unreasonable to assume that now, when the violation is contested, the Security Council or anyone else will push to sanction Iran.

This isn’t the first missile launch since the deal. The Mullahs launched long-range ballistic missiles several weeks after signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The launch appeared designed to test Washington’s reaction.

American officials cried foul, and mild unilateral American sanctions were imposed. Administration officials said that the launch was not a violation of the JCPOA, though; that deal, considered President Obama’s crown foreign policy achievement, did not address Iran’s missile program.

Yet, they stressed, the testing of long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads was a “clear violation” of Security Council resolutions that were still in existence at that time. America will “press the Security Council for an appropriate response to Iran’s disregard for its international obligations,” Samantha Power, the American ambassador here, said after an Iranian test in October.

In December Iran conducted yet another launch, once again in a clear violation of Security Council resolutions. Ms. Power then accused some members of the council of “dithering,” adding, “This council cannot allow Iran to feel that it can violate our resolutions with impunity. Some council members may not like those resolutions, but they are our resolutions.”

Yet, according to several diplomats involved in the backroom activities, none of the western countries sought new sanctions. “It was a very sensitive moment in the life of the nuclear deal,” said one diplomat. “Nobody wanted to damage the implementation of the nuclear deal by imposing new sanctions.”

Later, according to another diplomat, Russia made clear that it would not allow the council to impose any new sanctions. By mid-January, once the United Nations atomic agency reported that Iran mostly carried all its obligations under the terms of the nuclear deal, the JCPOA was declared to have been “implemented.” That meant that from then on, many of the Council’s previous restrictions on Iran’s arms possession and testing would be removed — including on non-nuclear capable missiles.

According to UN sources, the missiles Iran tested Tuesday would have been considered a violation of Security Council resolutions that were imposed up to 2010, but after the implementation of JCPOA, which the council adopted last summer, the testing is no longer a violation.

It is difficult to see, therefore, how the council would address an Iranian launch, which the White House calls “inconsistent” with UN resolutions, but that officials here indicate now falls outside of “mandatory restrictions.” If has America failed to push hard after what everyone agreed was a violation, how would it be successful when a missile launch falls in a gray area?

Mr. Avni is on Twitter: @bennyavni.


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