Though famously skeptical of the United Nations, U.S. President Donald Trump harnessed its collective power to impose crushing sanctions on North Korea in a bid to start talks with Pyongyang, but faces frustration over a similar push on Iran.
While the U.N. Security Council was unified on North Korea, there is almost total opposition to the Trump administration’s assertion that it has triggered a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, using a process agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran that Washington quit two years ago.
Diplomats expect Iran to be a focus when Trump addresses the annual U.N. meeting of world leaders on Tuesday from the White House just days after a deadline passes that Washington says requires all countries to extend here an arms embargo and reimpose other sanctions on Tehran.
It will be the fourth U.N. speech by Trump, who is seeking re-election on Nov. 3 and espouses an “America first” approach often at odds with the multilateralism that governs the world body. Diplomats gasped during his debut when he threatened “fire and fury” on North Korea and laughed the second year when he boasted about his accomplishments. Last year he denounced Iran’s “bloodlust,” but said there was a path to peace.
After years of U.S. rhetoric on Iran at the United Nations, Washington said it took action at the 15-member Security Council last month that it said would lead to a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran this weekend.
But 13 members, including America’s long-time allies, said the U.S. move has no legal effect and diplomats say few countries are likely to implement the measures, which were lifted under the deal between world powers and Iran that aimed to stop Tehran developing nuclear weapons.
“There should be joint leverage against Iran on the nuclear and other files,” said a senior European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Damage is done when that unity cracks and one country goes it alone and the leverage is reduced.”
Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States would do “all the things we need to do” to enforce the U.N. sanctions.
Trump called the Iran nuclear agreement the “worst deal ever.” Since withdrawing, the Trump administration has imposed unilateral sanctions under what it says is a “maximum pressure” campaign to force Iran to negotiate a new deal.
A senior Security Council diplomat, also speaking on condition of anonymity, argues the Iran nuclear deal had been working until Washington quit and “Iran is closer to the bomb right now than it was two years ago,” adding that the threat posed by North Korea “now is bigger than three years ago.”