The Delicate Duality of Zarif and Jalili
The six years of nuclear negotiations led by Saeed Jalili had only one outcome: the issuance of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, pushing our country into Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
These resolutions imposed the harshest sanctions on Iran, from banning oil sales and foreign trade to insurance, banking, investments, and transportation, allowing all countries in the world to seize any ship carrying goods from or to Iran in any sea.
However, when Mohammad Javad Zarif took charge of the negotiations, within about two years, he convinced the P5+1 countries and Security Council members to issue a new resolution that annulled all these resolutions, thus bringing Iran back to the world stage. This, for reasons we will discuss, was a significant event in the history of international law.
So far, the UN Security Council has issued sanction resolutions against several countries. The UN Charter has a chapter that addresses threats to global peace.
This chapter, the seventh of the Charter, allows the Security Council to impose sanctions on any country that threatens peace and security and, ultimately, to launch a military attack on that country with a multinational force.
In all instances where the Security Council has brought a country’s case under Chapter VII and imposed sanctions, one of three outcomes has occurred.
1. Full Implementation of Security Council Resolutions: The sanctioned country has fully complied with the Security Council resolutions and, after complete implementation, has been exempted from sanctions, like Libya in the case of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie.
2. Regime Change: The regime of the sanctioned country has changed due to internal events, fulfilling the Security Council’s demands, as in the case of South Africa where the apartheid regime was dismantled by a popular uprising led by Mandela, ending the racist policies that were the basis for the sanctions.
3. Military Attack: The third scenario involves a foreign military attack on the sanctioned country that has not complied with the resolutions. Military attacks on Iraq and Yugoslavia after their non-compliance with Security Council resolutions are prominent examples where the resolutions were enforced through military intervention.
In summary, to date, all Security Council resolutions have met one of these three fates: countries have either complied with them, undergone internal regime changes, or faced foreign military intervention, ultimately leading to the implementation of the resolutions.
As a result of Zarif and his colleagues’ negotiations, for the first time in the history of international law, a fourth option was added to these three scenarios: the annulment of Security Council resolutions through dialogue without implementing them.
This significant event occurred while the six recent Security Council resolutions against Iran, approved before the ongoing negotiations, imposed the heaviest sanctions on Iran, including orders for the complete halt of uranium enrichment in the country.
However, with the agreement reached, Iran continues its nuclear activities, and the Security Council, contrary to its previous resolutions and without their implementation, issued a new resolution and annulled its previous resolutions.
This was an unprecedented victory for Iran and a major event in the history of international law.
Below are some of the most important Chapter VII Security Council cases. These cases had given the permanent members of the Security Council hope that Iran would also face one of the three aforementioned fates, but the prudence of Iranian statesmen led to the fourth scenario.
South Africa
The apartheid regime in South Africa, seen as a threat to its people and neighbors, received three resolutions from the Security Council.
The first resolution was issued on November 4, 1977, numbered 418, and the second on June 13, 1980, numbered 473. Additionally, another resolution was issued on December 13, 1984, numbered 558 against this country.
These resolutions demanded the apartheid regime abandon its racist and violent policies and required countries worldwide to impose extensive sanctions against South Africa.
However, the then-government ignored these resolutions and remained under sanctions until the country’s popular struggles, led by Nelson Mandela, succeeded, the apartheid regime was overthrown, and free elections were held.
It was after this that the Security Council convened on May 25, 1994, and with the issuance of resolution 919, ended the 17-year sanctions on South Africa.
Iraq
Four days after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1991, and the occupation of this country, the Security Council issued resolution 661 under Chapter VII of the Charter, placing Iraq under sanctions. After the issuance of this resolution, Baghdad ignored it, leading to further resolutions against the country and ultimately resulting in war.
After the war and the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, the sanctions remained until the U.S. attacked Iraq again, overthrowing its government. After these catastrophic events and the establishment of a democratically elected government in Iraq, the Security Council issued resolution 1483 in 2013, ending the sanctions.
Yugoslavia
The civil war in Yugoslavia brought the Security Council to the region, issuing several resolutions against the country, including resolution 713 on September 25, 1991, and resolution 724 on December 15, 1991.
These resolutions were only annulled and the sanctions lifted with resolution 1367 after international coalition forces bombed Yugoslavia, forcing the retreat of the invading forces. The outcome of this civil war was the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Haiti
In 1991, a coup occurred in Haiti, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Bernard Aristide. The UN Security Council issued resolution 841 on June 16, 1993, and resolution 917 on May 6, 1994, against this country, imposing sanctions.
With the coup government’s disregard for these resolutions, the Security Council formed a multinational military force on July 31, 1994, with the goal of restoring the legitimate government. Finally, with the coup leaders’ exit from power and Aristide’s return, the Security Council ended the sanctions with resolution 948.
Libya
On December 21, 1988, an American Pan Am flight was destroyed over Lockerbie, killing 259 people. Three years later, the U.S. prosecutor identified three Libyan citizens as suspects and requested their extradition from the Libyan government.
Gaddafi refused, prompting the Security Council to act, imposing penalties on Libya with resolution 748 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, and expanding the sanctions with resolution 883 on November 11, 1993.
Libya tried hard to resist the sanctions but ultimately surrendered, handing over the suspects and paying compensation for the passengers and the aircraft, leading to the lifting of sanctions with resolution 1506 on September 12, 2003.
Bringing Iran under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and the sanction resolutions that broke Iran’s back and darkened the days of Iranians is an undeniable record of Jalili. If Zarif had done nothing else but manage to have all these resolutions annulled by the Security Council itself, that would be his great honor and service, especially since even Trump could not revive these resolutions and settled for unilateral U.S. sanctions.
Even within the framework of a single political system, who is in charge is this significant and different.
