Trump Eyes Executive Order to Punish Arms Trade with Iran: Sources


Trump Eyes Executive Order to Punish Arms Trade with Iran: Sources

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, four sources familiar with the matter said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the executive order was expected to be issued in the coming days and would allow the US president to punish violators with secondary sanctions, depriving them of access to the US market, Reuters reported.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proximate cause for the US action is the impending expiry of a UN arms embargo on Iran and to warn foreign actors - US entities are already barred from such trade - that if they buy or sell arms to Iran they will face US sanctions.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, the UN conventional arms embargo is to set to expire on Oct. 18, shortly before the Nov. 3 US election.

The United States, which abandoned the nuclear deal in May 2018, says it has triggered a “snap back,” or resumption, of all UN sanctions on Iran, including the arms embargo, which would take effect at 8 p.m. on Saturday night or 0000 GMT on Sunday.

Other parties to the nuclear deal and the UN Security Council have said the United States has no right to reimpose the UN sanctions and that the US move at the United Nations has no legal effect.

“It is obvious that none of the Security Council members have accepted the eligibility of US claims,” said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, adding that the nuclear deal remains in place and all sanctions on Iran will be lifted in under the time-lines agreed in 2015.

Trump’s executive order is intended to show that the United States will not be deterred despite failing to win broader UN Security Council backing “snapback,” said one of the four sources.

Another of the sources, a European diplomat, said the new executive order would put teeth behind Washington’s assertion that the UN arms embargo would remain in place beyond October by giving the president secondary sanctions authority to punish arms transfers to or from Iran with US sanctions.

Secondary sanctions are those where one country seeks to punish a second country for trading with a third by barring access to its own market.

Speaking on Wednesday, US Special Representative for Venezuela and Iran, Elliott Abrams, said Washington planned to impose sanctions on those who violated the UN arms embargo, though he did not say it would do so with an executive order.

 

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