A newly revealed United Nations report accuses Iranian leaders of regularly violating international sanctions and asserts that several Western powers — including the United States — ignored the infractions to protect ongoing nuclear talks with the Islamic republic.
The Obama administration and its negotiating partners in the so-called P5+1 — Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia — have turned a blind eye to suspected sanctions violations, according to the report, which the U.N. analysts have been drafting for months.
According to Bloomberg News, the report was published June 1. Researchers who worked on it concluded that there could be a variety of explanations for the silence from Western powers.
One is that Western powers are satisfied that Iran has cracked down on sanctions evasion activities related to the nation’s nuclear program, while pushing ahead with violations that Western powers may be less concerned about. Another is that the Obama administration and its partners may simply be turning a blind eye to a wider slate of sanctions violations in the interest of pushing forward at all costs with the nuclear talks.
“The current situation with reporting could reflect a general reduction of procurement activities by the Iranian side or a political decision by some member states to refrain from reporting to avoid a possible negative impact on ongoing negotiations” between Iran and six world powers, states the report, according to Bloomberg.
There was some confusion, however, about the report’s conclusions. A Reuters report from April cited the same quote from the U.N. document that Bloomberg highlighted Tuesday. At the time, Reuters reported that the U.N. specialists had been alerted by the British government that Iran was in violation of the sanctions by running a nuclear procurement network linking to two blacklisted firms.
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“The UK government informed the Panel on 20 April 2015 that it ’is aware of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network which has been associated with Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA) and Kalay Electric Company (KEC),’” the report said in April, according to Reuters.
U.N. officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
The Obama administration did not immediately comment on the report.
It was not clear how the assertions may affect the nuclear talks, which are headed toward a self-imposed June 30 deadline. An agreement is expected to bring promises of major sanctions relief from the West in exchange for a significant curtailing of Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, but Washington and its allies, including Israel, began leveling sanctions against Tehran more than a decade ago based on fears that the Islamic republic has secretly pursued nuclear weapons in violation of U.N. regulations.
Although the U.N. report may be unlikely to slow momentum of the nuclear talks, it is certain to bolster critics, who have spent the past year accusing Iran of lying during the negotiations and asserting that Tehran remains dangerously close to obtaining a nuclear bomb.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a top critic, said Tuesday that Arab leaders agree with him that the emerging nuclear deal won’t stop Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons capability.
“I am often portrayed as the nuclear party pooper,” Mr. Netanyahu told an audience at a conference in Israel. “But I speak with quite a few of our neighbors, more than you think, and I want to tell you that nobody in this region believes this deal will block Iran’s path to the bomb.
“It’s worth noting that nobody from this region except Iran is at the negotiating table,” he said.
Also Tuesday, evidence emerged that the Obama administration may have to backtrack on its promise to suspend only nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran as part of the deal.
Citing unidentified officials, The Associated Press reported that current U.S. sanctions against Tehran may be too tangled and complicated to remove along the specific guidelines that administration officials have touted.
Under the sanctions developed over decades, hundreds of companies and individuals have been penalized for their roles in Iran’s nuclear program and for ballistic missile research, terrorism, human rights violations and money laundering.
Now the administration is wending its way through that briar patch of interwoven economic sanctions.
“Iran knows that our array of sanctions focused on its efforts to support terrorism and destabilize the region will continue after any nuclear agreement,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a gathering of Jewish Americans in a weekend speech. U.S. officials will “aggressively target the finances of Iranian-backed terrorist groups and the Iranian entities that support them,” he said, including the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force.
That’s easier said than done, according to The Associated Press.
The Treasury Department’s sanctions point man, Adam Szubin, has been tasked with sorting out the mess, according to U.S. officials, though no clear plan has been finalized.
While that process plays out, the U.N. panel examining sanctions imposed by Washington and European nations raised questions about the extent to which the restrictions are being enforced.
The panel said no country has reported that Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the nation’s elite Quds Force, has violated a U.N.-mandated travel ban despite “a number of media reports with photographs and videos” showing him in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, “reportedly organizing and training militia and regular forces in those countries.”
According to Bloomberg News, the panel’s report included examples of such photos.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday voted to keep intact a panel monitoring the sanctions regardless of whether a final nuclear deal is reached by the end of the month.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a resolution renewing the mandate of the panel until July 2016.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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