WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) The United States will circulate at the UN Security Council a legal memorandum explaining its right to introduce a proposal to extend the arms embargo against Iran despite having withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear agreement with that country, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters on Thursday.
"Later today, actually this morning we will be circulating the council members the six-page legal memo that would... explain out rights under 2231 [UN resolution endorsing the nuclear agreement]," Hook said during a phone briefing.
The memorandum was prepared by the State Department's Office of the Legal Advisor ahead of the debates on the United States' proposal to extend indefinitely the conventional arms embargo against Iran.
The embargo is set to expire in two months under the terms of the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Hook said that the move does not preclude the United States from proposing new restrictions and opposing arguments that Washington has seen on the question of standing being long on emotion and short on substance.
Hook pointed out that the JCPOA is a non-binding political arrangement and has no binding commitments.
"Resolution 2231 didn't transform the JCPOA from a non-binding political arrangement," Hook said. "JCPOA participants are free to stop performing non-binding political commitments at any time without violating international law and they still have to comply with international obligations that are independent of the Iran's nuclear deal and that includes legal obligations under 2231."
Russia and China have already voiced opposition to the US document.
In July 2015, Iran signed a nuclear agreement with the United States, China, France, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The agreement stipulates that Iran must scale back its nuclear program and downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the UN arms embargo five years after the accord was adopted. The agreement has been undermined since May 2018, when the US unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reintroduced sanctions against Iran.
