U.N. Sanctions on Iran: Far From Crippling
James Phillips /
Today the United Nations Security Council voted to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran which modestly raise the costs to Tehran for its continued nuclear defiance, but fall far short of the “crippling sanctions” promised by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year. The sanctions resolution marginally reinforced a previous set of economic, military and high-technology sanctions against Iran and added new bans on Iranian investment in sensitive nuclear activities abroad, the sale of eight categories of heavy weapons to Iran and the establishment in U.N. member states of new branches of Iranian banks suspected of involvement in proliferation. The resolution also “calls upon” but does not “require” member states to conduct inspections of ships and airplanes suspected of carrying contraband to or from Iran.
The resolution was passed by a 12 to 2 vote with one abstention. As expected, Brazil and Turkey, which hatched a flawed nuclear deal with Iran last month, voted against sanctions. Lebanon, which increasingly has fallen under the shadow of Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist surrogate, abstained.
Missing from the final draft of the resolution were any sanctions against Iran’s oil industry, whose revenues are crucial to the regime, or sanctions against Iran’s central bank, which U.S. officials maintain is involved in financing proliferation activities and terrorism. China and Russia succeeded in diluting the sanctions in protracted negotiations lasting more than five months. (more…)