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New sanctions on Iran

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The UN Security Council has voted once again to sanction Iran. Washington Post correspondent Colum Lynch tells anchor Marco Werman the sanctions tighten financial restrictions on Iran, toughen shipping inspections and expand the arms embargo, but Lynch says there are plenty of loopholes.

• Colum Lynch’s blog

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  After months of diplomatic wrangling it’s finally happened.  The U.N. Security Council has agreed to impose new sanctions on Iran.  The Council voted 12-2 for the measure to punish Iran for building a covert nuclear facility and enriching uranium.  It includes tighter financial restrictions, tougher shipping inspections and the expansion of a limited arms embargo.  Colum Lynch is a correspondent for the Washington Post.  He joins us from the U.N.  Colum, this has been in the works for so long, now it’s in motion.  What is the bottom line here in terms of what these sanctions will mean for Iran’s government and for its people.

COLUM LYNCH:  Well, the bottom line is that it preserves a kind of unity among the major powers for the Iranian containment strategy.  That the Americans were able to bring along, somewhat grudgingly, the Chinese and the Russians to impose a fourth round of sanctions.  These are not going to be devastating or crippling sanctions as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised last year, but they will make life more difficult for the Iranians.

WERMAN: I understand there is a travel ban and asset freeze for some 40 Iranian elites and for companies linked to the nation’s nuclear program.  What does that mean, practically?

LYNCH: There is one individual singled out in this resolution, a head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency.  He is not going to be able to travel around the world and go places, so that will restrain him.  It’s a little less clear about what impact it will have on the 40 other entities.  There have been sanctions against, asset freeze on some of the companies that essentially are involved in transporting a lot these goods which are under suspicion of supporting a nuclear weapons program.  So it will make their life a little bit more difficult, but they have been playing something of a cat and mouse game.  They have been changing the names of companies that have been singled out by sanctions, so that will continue.  So I imagine that a lot of companies that are named in this resolution will probably turn into different companies or shell companies will be set up to be out in the front and conducting these kinds of transactions.

WERMAN: Often with these things, if you read the fine print, you find some pretty bizarre details on the sanctions.  What is the oddest sanction from what you’ve seen so far?

LYNCH: I think probably the most surprising thing for me was to discover that while this resolution expands an existing arms embargo, what you don’t notice reading the text is that there’s a huge loophole which allows a country like Russia to sell ground to surface missiles.  So there are a lot of things that you don’t see on the surface, hidden loopholes that in essence were required to convince countries like China that trades with Iran, and Russia to go along with this.

WERMAN: Brazil and Turkey voted no on this, they were the two no votes.  It’s far from the unanimous vote the White House sought.  How much does that distract from the final effort?

LYNCH: It depends; is this the beginning of two important regional powers that are not seen by the U.S. and others as extremist governments, are they now going down the course of challenging the legitimacy of the Security Council?  Will this become part of a broader coalition against the U.S. containment strategy on Iran?  Those are, I think, more interesting long term questions as to whether this is just a one-off or whether this is the part of a process of growing opposition to the Security Council’s role as the world’s enforcer.

WERMAN: Washington Post correspondent Colum Lynch speaking with us from the U.N.  You can link to his Turtle Bay blog at the world dot org.  Colum, thank you very much.

LYNCH: Alright, thank you very much for having me.

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