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Yellen has vowed new sanctions against Tehran in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel, and European foreign ministers will be in Jerusalem to persuade Israelis to let diplomacy take its course. But with the State Department granting a New York visa to Iran’s foreign minister, a much-promised global pressure campaign may prove insufficient to change the Islamic Republic’s policies.
“The Treasury Department will continue to work with our allies to leverage sanctions powers to disrupt the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activities,” Yellen said Tuesday in Washington ahead of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings. I will not hesitate to do so.” He said a decision would be made soon, but did not say what new sanctions were being considered.
German and British Foreign Ministers Annalena Verbock and David Cameron are scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem on Wednesday on a tour billed as a solidarity visit with Israel following the weekend’s attack on Iran. They will reportedly try to persuade Israel to tone down its expected military response to allow the global anti-Iran coalition to devise pressure plans.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council is scheduled to convene a meeting on the Middle East on Thursday, during which Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian is expected to deliver an anti-Israel speech. Abdullahian is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. However, the State Department approved his visit to New York.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan called the trip “a testament to how rogue states and dictators can exploit the structure of the United Nations to cover up their crimes,” calling the trip “a testament to how rogue states and dictators can exploit the structure of the United Nations to cover up their crimes.” He likened it to “Hitler’s foreign minister giving a speech about stability in Europe” during World War II.
“Whether Mr. Abdullahian gets a visa or not, he’s still going to get $10 billion,” Richard Goldberg, the former White House director of Iran’s countermeasures against weapons of mass destruction, told The Sun. Told. He cited President Biden’s sanctions waiver in March that gave Iran access to that amount. With exemptions remaining in place after the weekend’s unprecedented attacks on Israel, “it’s hard to believe that Biden is considering serious sanctions,” Goldberg said.
To put serious economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran, Biden and European partners would need to sequester $10 billion, enforce existing oil sanctions and trigger the UN’s “snapback” mechanism. There is, he added. The latter step would reimpose Iran under strict international restrictions that were eased after the 2015 nuclear deal.
The agreement’s signatories, the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, could unilaterally renege on the Security Council resolution that legitimized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. International sanctions on the import and export of drones and missiles of the kind that Iran fired at Israel on Sunday will be automatically reimposed.
But several diplomats told The Sun that no one in London, Paris or Berlin was seriously considering introducing a snapback option. President Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, but his attempts to take advantage of that option were rejected by the Security Council.
Meanwhile, promises by the United States and its European partners to work collaboratively to isolate Iran on the world stage have been clouded by Abdullahian’s arrival in New York. He is scheduled to take part in a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday on the Middle East and Palestine issue. The meeting will feature a monthly debate on how Israel is more isolated than other U.N. member states.
Asked about issuing Abdullahian a visa, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We take our obligations as UN host very seriously.” He referred to the 1947 Host Nations Treaty, which requires the United Nations headquarters to be located in the United States and to allow access to foreign officials who wish to participate in United Nations operations.
But Congress has decided that some diplomats can be barred from entering the country on security, terrorism and foreign policy grounds. That law has been used several times in the past. In 2014, President Obama denied entry to Iran’s UN candidate Hamid Aboutalevi.
By contrast, Mr. Abdullahian has visited New York twice since October 7, despite being a card holder for the Revolutionary Guards, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department. By not denying him entry after the attack on Iran, the US government appears to be prioritizing meeting its obligations to the United Nations over adhering to US law.
At the same time, during Wednesday’s visit to Israel, Mr. Birbock and Mr. Cameron may be asked why neither the European Union nor Britain lists the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. London is one example, and has avoided doing so despite attempted assassinations by the Revolutionary Guards on British soil.
Goldberg, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said sanctions being considered by the U.S. government and European countries would likely impose restrictions on companies associated with the Islamic Republic’s missile and drone industries. . To date, these sanctions have had little success.
Rather, the world’s pledge to put pressure on Iran appears aimed at encouraging Israel to soften its planned response to the Iranian attack. Secretary Blinken reportedly told Jewish American leaders on Tuesday that further escalation with Iran “is not in the interest of America or Israel.”
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