Issue: Dealing with the Conflict between Iran and the USA concerning the Nuclear Agreement

 

Background Information

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the most influential nations in the middle east. The relations between the US and the Iran have always been stained, including harsh sanctions against the Iran. Furthermore, the US is represented only through Switzerland and not by its own embassy. Since 1959 the Iran is running its nuclear program to upgrade their energy supply, but it is presumed, that the Iran also wants to develop weapons grade uranium and ultimately become a nuclear superpower. In 2013 negotiations with the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Germany started, to stop Iran’s nuclear program for at least 10 years and put an end to the sanctions restricting the Iranian economy. The contract, known as the nuclear deal, was signed in 2015.

One year after Donald Trump became the elected president of the United States of America, he quits the deal and imposes new sanctions to the Iran. Their economy suffered hard under said sanctions and they started to ramp up their nuclear program again. In 2019 the US created new oil penalties to prevent all Iranian oil exports, which account for up to 60% of Iran’s overall exports.

 On the 8th of April 2019, Trump announced he was designating a powerful arm of the Iranian military, the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign "terrorist" organisation. This was the first time the US has declared a nations military as a terrorist group. After that, the US sends an aircraft carrier strike group and air force bombers to the middle east, in answer to the Iran being accused of damaging and interfering multiple oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. Short after that the Iranian military shut down a US drone that was suspected of entering Iranian territory. The US contradicts and reveals the drone's location data, showing that it has only operated in international airspace. A few days later the Iran was accused of carrying out a missile attack on a Saudi Arabian oil facility but no evidence could be found.

On the first of July 2019, Tehran exceeded the limit on the amount of enriched uranium set out in the nuclear deal. After a British oil tanker was confiscated by the IRGC, the British navy now escorts all UK vessels passing the Strait of Hormuz. Multiple rocket attacks, sanctions and incidents on the Strait of Hormuz followed, until on December 31, enraged members and supporters of pro-Iranian paramilitary groups broke into the heavily fortified US embassy compound in Baghdad, smashed a main door and set parts of the perimeter on fire.

On the 3rd of January 2020, US President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike to kill a prominent Iranian major general, Qassem Soleimani, who was in the Iraq at that time. Thousands mourned Soleimani during his public funeral. According to US sources, he was suspected to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against US interests. The Iran announced countermeasures against US targets in the middle east and fired multiple ballistic missiles at military bases housing US troops in Iraq, on the 8th of January. In a Tweet, Javad Zarif, the foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said Iran had taken and concluded "proportionate measures in self-defence" under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Donald Trump announced, that since no US Soldiers were injured, he would refrain from further counterattacks.

The European Union has failed to take a roll as a mediator or to exert a significant influence during the conflict.

Concluding, the United States of America try to put an effective end to Iran’s nuclear program and limit its wide influence in the middle east, while Iran wants to expel US military forces from neighbouring countries and expand his leverage in the middle east.

 

Issues of the Security Council

The members of the Security Council must find a solution for the further course of the conflict within the framework of the position and interests of their own delegation. For instance, the United States of America and its allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, should try to limit Iran's influence and end its nuclear program. Iran could try to convince as many nations as possible to support it against the US, while other parties, such as members of the European Union, should try to compete with the US and promote their own interests.

 

Sources

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/iran-tensions-timeline-events-leading-soleimani-killing-200103152234464.html

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/nahost-konflikt-zwischen-usa-und-iran-was-am-sonntag-passiert-ist-a-1303715.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/05/opinions/us-iran-history-ware-intl/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24316661