Trump’s Iran Deal Decision Leaves the Security Council Out in the Cold

Trump’s Iran Deal Decision Leaves the Security Council Out in the Cold
Iranian women attend an anti-U.S. gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, May 11, 2018 (AP photo by Vahid Salemi).

The United States has found a new way to hurt the United Nations Security Council: Ignore it.

Last week, I predicted that U.S. President Donald Trump was about to pull out of the Iranian nuclear bargain, setting the stage for a showdown in the council. This was half right.

Trump quit the deal Tuesday. But his national security adviser, John Bolton, signaled that the U.S. does not plan to return to the U.N. to reimpose multilateral sanctions on Tehran. Instead, Washington will rely on unilateral secondary sanctions, which can cut non-American companies out of the U.S. market if they continue to trade with Iran.

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