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                        UN Closer to Iran Sanctions Vote

   by Margaret Besheer

   The United States is expected to circulate a draft resolution Wednesday
   in the United Nations Security Council that would lift all
   international sanctions related to the Islamic Republic's nuclear
   program; but a U.N. arms embargo will remain in place for five years
   and one on ballistic missiles will continue for eight years.

   Opposition is unlikely, as the five veto-holding council members -
   Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - all are parties
   to the deal. A vote could take place in the coming days. The accord
   agreed to in Vienna calls for
   Security Council `adoption without delay.'

   U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power had said the
   United States would submit the draft resolution on behalf of the five
   powers, Germany and the European Union. She said it will endorse the
   deal and "take other important steps, including replacing the existing
   Security Council sanctions architecture with the new, binding
   restrictions agreed on in Vienna."
   IAEA Inspections
   The resolution is expected to terminate all provisions of previous U.N.
   sanctions resolutions imposed on Iran over the past nine years. That
   move occurs simultaneously with the IAEA-verified inspections of agreed
   nuclear-related measures by Tehran and will establish specific
   restrictions.
   Richard Gowan, a fellow at the New York University Center on
   International Cooperation, said sanctions relief was Iran's "Number one
   goal" during the two years of nuclear negotiations.
   The United States has made clear, however, that if Iran violates the
   deal, sanctions will "snap back" into place. Gowan said actually
   achieving that, however, could be difficult at the United Nations
   "because Moscow and Beijing are going to resist any effort to put
   sanctions back on Tehran."
   Randa Slim, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute,
   said Iran's economy has suffered under international sanctions and most
   of the money it stands to receive now will be spent on reviving the
   economy, modernizing the oil sector and meeting the demands of the
   electorate that brought President Hassan Rouhani to power.
   "At the same time," she cautioned, "It does not mean that they are
   going to be stopping their support of Houthis in Yemen, or the Hashd
   [Shiite militias] in Iraq, or the support of Assad in Syria or the
   support of Hezbollah in Lebanon."
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/un-closer-to-iran-on-sanctions-vote/2
   862944.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/un-closer-to-iran-on-sanctions-vote/2862944.html