Pompeo set to double down on failure to extend Iran arms embargo
The administration thinks it can get the arms ban extension, and much more, by now moving on to trigger snapback of all the pre-JCPOA sanctions.
Mark Fitzpatrick is an Associate Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Until 2019, he was Executive Director of the IISS Americas office and head of the Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Programme. Before IISS, he had a 26-year career in the US Department of State, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation (acting). He has produced ten books relating to proliferation, including as co-author of “Uncertain Future: The JCPOA and Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes (2019).
The administration thinks it can get the arms ban extension, and much more, by now moving on to trigger snapback of all the pre-JCPOA sanctions.
Iran continues to pull back on some of its obligations in response to Trump unilaterally reimposing crushing sanctions, but the JCPOA is still alive.
It would be senseless for the U.S. to try to stop the petroleum transfer. It would be condemned by nearly every other country in the world as an abuse of U.S. power, with both Iran and Venezuela benefitting from political sympathy.
While the Trump administration touts its maximum pressure campaign as a route to peace in the Middle East, Iran’s increased hostilities prove it wrong.