As UN sanctions on Iran resume, world faces fearful choices

All eyes on Iran’s response as reimposition of sanctions deals heavy blow on country

- Jonathan Eyal Global Affairs Correspondent

The sanctions imposed by the United Nations, which were suspended when the nuclear deal was implemented, will now reenter into force at the stroke of midnight local time on Sunday, Sept 28.

Iran’s rulers are, as always, defiant, claiming that their country has weathered many other sanctions and is sure to do so again.

But the Iranian economy is now in a tailspin, and the country’s strategic position in the Middle East has seldom been weaker.

Thus, the reimposition of comprehensive sanctions is a heavy blow to a country that has frequently aimed to be a key regional player.

The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was concluded in July 2015 between Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany and the European Union.

The JCPOA offered Iran a bargain. The country could maintain its nuclear programme and continue to enrich uranium, but only at lower levels and in lower quantities than those considered necessary for the production of nuclear weapons. Iran also undertook to open its nuclear sites to international inspections. In return, it was offered a respite from many sanctions, and it gained the ability to access some of its funds, frozen in various banks in Europe and North America.

There was one major caveat. If any of the signatories subsequently discovered that Iran failed to respect the deal’s conditions, it could demand the reimposition of all the sanctions; this is the so-called “snapback” provision in the JCPOA.

The document was controversial from the start. The agreement’s complicated name was invented to get around the fact that the document is not a treaty, mainly because then US President Barack Obama knew that he could not get the US Senate to approve it, a necessary step according to the US Constitution for any binding treaty to which the Americans are a party.