US Says Will Seek UN Sanctions If Iran Arms Embargo not Extended

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a press conference at the State Department, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a press conference at the State Department, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)
TT

US Says Will Seek UN Sanctions If Iran Arms Embargo not Extended

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a press conference at the State Department, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives for a press conference at the State Department, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to seek to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran if the UN Security Council does not approve a resolution that would indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Tehran, which is set to expire in October.

Pompeo told a news conference at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday that without extending the arms embargo, "Iran will be able to purchase advanced weapons systems and become an arms dealer of choice for terrorists and rogue regimes all throughout the world. This is unacceptable."

He spoke ahead of a closed video briefing to Security Council members Wednesday afternoon on the US draft resolution to maintain the arms embargo by US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook and US Ambassador Kelly Craft.

Tensions between Iran and the US have escalated since the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six major powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling US sanctions.

A year ago, the US sent thousands more troops, long-range bombers, and an aircraft carrier to the Middle East in response to what it called a growing threat of Iranian attacks on US interests in the region.

The five other powers that signed the nuclear deal - Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany - remain committed to it, saying the agreement is key to continuing inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and preventing Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Lifting the arms embargo is part of the 2015 Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear agreement. The Security Council is scheduled to discuss the resolution's implementation on June 30.

Calling Iran "the leading state sponsor of terror," Pompeo said the US focus is to work with the Security Council to pass the resolution.

"But, in the event that doesn´t happen, I would remind the world that the Obama administration´s officials said very clearly that the United States has the unilateral ability to snap back sanctions into place," he said.

The 2015 nuclear deal includes a "snap back" provision which would restore all UN sanctions against Iran that had been lifted or eased if the nuclear deal is violated.

The State Department said that in his briefing, Hook pointed to Iranian arms transfers and "the full range of Iran´s malign activity, including its September 2019 direct attack on Saudi Arabia," which violate current restrictions. Drone strikes hit two Saudi oil installations on Sept. 14, which the US blamed on Iran.

Russia´s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has made clear Moscow´s opposition to a new arms embargo on Iran and has dismissed as "ridiculous" the possibility of the Trump administration trying to use the "snap back" provision.

Nebenzia said the US pulled out of the agreement and "they have no right" to use any of its provisions.

But Pompeo and Craft insist the resolution makes clear the US retains to right to use the "snap back" provision.

Diplomats said that at Wednesday´s closed briefing there was an exchange of views with the US on one side and Russia on the other.

Some Western governments privately fear that maintaining an arms embargo will lead Iran to oust IAEA inspectors and move ahead on developing nuclear weapons.

The latest report by IAEA said Iran has continued to increase its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The nuclear agreement promised Iran economic incentives in return for curbs on its nuclear program, which Tehran said it hasn´t received, especially since the US withdrawal in 2018. Iran has since slowly and openly violated the nuclear restrictions to try and pressure the remaining nations in the agreement to increase incentives to offset the economy-crippling US sanctions.

The draft US resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, would ban Iran from supplying, selling, or transferring any arms or related material from its territory after the embargo expires on Oct. 18.

It would also ban the other 192 UN member states from buying Iranian weapons or allowing their nationals to train, provide financial resources or assistance related "to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance, or use of arms and related materiel" to Iran unless they get Security Council approval at least 30 days in advance.

The draft would authorize all UN member states to inspect cargo entering or transiting through their territory at airports, seaports, and free trade zones from Iran or heading there if the member state "has reasonable grounds to believe the cargo" contains banned items.

It would also condemn the September 2019 attack against Saudi Arabia "carried out by Iran" and condemn December 2019 attacks against an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk and the US Embassy in Baghdad. And it would deplore "Iran´s transfers of arms to militias and other armed groups in the region" and demand that Iran stop such transfers immediately.



Seoul's Spy Agency Says North Korean Soldiers Captured in Ukraine Haven't Shown Desire to Defect

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside of Tsiolkovsky, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia on Sept. 13, 2023. (Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside of Tsiolkovsky, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia on Sept. 13, 2023. (Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
TT

Seoul's Spy Agency Says North Korean Soldiers Captured in Ukraine Haven't Shown Desire to Defect

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside of Tsiolkovsky, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia on Sept. 13, 2023. (Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shake hands during their meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside of Tsiolkovsky, in the far eastern Amur region, Russia on Sept. 13, 2023. (Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Monday that two North Korean soldiers who were captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region haven’t expressed a desire to seek asylum in South Korea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s willing to hand over the soldiers to North Korea if the country’s authoritarian leader, Kim Jong Un, arranges for an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. Zelenskyy said one of the North Korean soldiers wishes to stay in Ukraine while the other wants to return to his country, which was consistent with interview videos released by his government. “If Kim Jong Un even remembers these citizens of his and is capable of organizing an exchange for our warriors being held in Russia, we are ready to transfer such soldiers. Undoubtedly there will be more POWs from North Korea,” Zelenskyy said in an address late Sunday. He said in a separate posting on the social media platform X that "there may be other options” for North Korean prisoners who don't wish to go back.
In a closed-door briefing at South Korea’s National Assembly, the National Intelligence Service confirmed its participation in the questioning of the North Korean soldiers by Ukrainian authorities. The agency said the soldiers haven’t expressed a request to resettle in South Korea, according to two lawmakers who attended the meeting.
The agency said it was willing to discuss the matter with Ukrainian authorities if the soldiers eventually do ask to go to South Korea. About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to capitalist rival South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political suppression at home, mostly since the late 1990s.
Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said facilitating the asylum of the North Korean soldiers would require “legal reviews, including on international law, and consultations with related nations.”
“There’s nothing we can say at the current stage,” Koo said.
Seoul’s spy agency believes that about 300 North Korean soldiers have died and another 2,700 have been injured while fighting against Ukrainian forces, in what represents North Korea's first involvement in large-scale conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War.
The agency assessed that the North Koreans are struggling to adapt to drones and other elements of modern warfare. They are further disadvantaged by the crude tactics of their Russian commanders, who have thrown them in assault campaigns without providing rear-fire support, according to Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the agency’s briefing.
The agency said memos found on dead North Korean soldiers indicated that they had been ordered to commit suicide before being captured, according to Lee. The agency said one North Korean soldier, facing the threat of being captured by Ukrainian forces, shouted “General Kim Jong Un” and tried to detonate a hand grenade before he was shot and killed.
Zelenskyy confirmed the capture of the North Korean soldiers on Saturday, days after Ukraine, facing a slow Russian onslaught in the east, began pressing new attacks in Kursk to retain ground captured in a lightning incursion in August — the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II.
Moscow’s counterattack has left Ukrainian forces outstretched and demoralized, killing and wounding thousands and retaking more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk that Ukraine had seized.
Moon Seong Mook, a retired South Korean brigadier general, said the high death toll for North Korean soldiers was predictable, as they would not have been sufficiently prepared for an unfamiliar mission in the terrain of the Kursk region, which is vastly different from North Korea’s mountainous landscape.
Another disadvantage for the North Koreans is that they are not conducting independent operations but are being thrust into combat under Russian commanders, possibly struggling with unfamiliar tactics and communication issues due to language barriers, said Moon, who has taken part in numerous military talks with North Korea. The North Korean forces could be operating special surveillance teams to arrest or execute attempted deserters, he said.
“The current battlefield environment, combined with drones and other technologies, have created situations North Korean soldiers have never encountered before,” Moon said. “They are also being deployed in large numbers in wide-open fields, where there is no place to hide, in continuous battles to retake the area, and that seems to be where the casualties are coming from.”
North Korea’s decadeslong financial troubles, which have forced many soldiers to grow their own food or spend long hours deployed in construction and other work to sustain the national economy, could also have impacted the quality of training they receive at home, Moon said.
Still, there are concerns in Seoul that North Korea’s participation in the Ukraine crisis poses a significant threat to South Korea, as North Korean forces may gain crucial combat experience and Russia may provide technology transfers that could enhance North Korea’s nuclear-armed army.