The United States accused Tehran on Wednesday of defying the U.N. resolution endorsing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with a satellite launch last month and also argued it is continuing to violate a U.N. arms embargo.
The United States wants to continue the arms embargo on Iran. Russia will likely use its Security Council veto to protect Iran.
I'm not sure our legal argument against the missile launches stand up to scrutiny thanks to John Kerry, as Iran's Zarif has explained:
Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a speech at the Australian National University that Security Council Resolution 2231, which was adopted after the Iranian nuclear deal was signed last year, did not bar Iran from testing the type of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles that it launched last week.
"It doesn't call upon Iran not to test ballistic missiles, or ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads ... it calls upon Iran not to test ballistic missiles that were 'designed' to be capable," Zarif said.
"That word took me about seven months to negotiate, so everybody knew what it meant," he said, referring to "designed."
Perhaps the Iranian wording is such a flimsy evasion of the intent that we can make the case that Iran is violating the terms. But so far we haven't been able to enforce that in the five years since the deal.
And even if we make the case for Iran violating the missile test limits, who punishes Iran? Who supports us? And if the UNSC doesn't support keeping the arms embargo on Iran, what's up with this plan?
"If American diplomacy is frustrated by a veto, however, the US retains the right to renew the arms embargo by other means," [US special envoy for Iran Brian] Hook wrote, citing the ability of a party to the Iran nuclear deal to trigger a so-called snapback of all UN sanctions on Iran, which includes the arms embargo.
If this is building to an American effort to trigger nuclear deal "snapback" sanctions on Iran, I think the blunders of the shameful and inept Kerry-run Obama nuclear diplomacy with Iran will be further exposed.
Is it unfair to say that much of the world, our friends and foes alike, would be happy if Iran had nuclear weapons to threaten America and Israel?
How can some Americans be such loyal water carriers for such a horrible and threatening regime?
