Iran Nuclear Deal Has Dueling Sanctions ‘Snapbacks’

A key enforcement tool of the nuclear deal with Iran is the idea that international sanctions would quickly “snap back” into place if Tehran violates any of its terms.

The deal signed July 14 in Vienna allows international sanctions to be reimposed anytime in the next 10 years if one of the parties to the agreement — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia or China — brings a violation to the U.N. Security Council. Only a vote of the council, which the United States can veto, can block the sanctions from being reimposed.

But Iran has a “snap back” mechanism of its own: If Iranian officials feel its international partners reimposed sanctions unfairly, they can unfreeze their country's nuclear program and resume enriching uranium without limits. It's a key element in concerns that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon.

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“The sanctions regime, the economic sanctions regime, is being dismantled while Iran's nuclear program is not,” sanctions expert Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, saying that Iran will use the hundreds of billions of dollars in relief to immunize its economy against economic pressure, leaving military force as the only viable option to prevent Iranian violations.

“This provides an Iranian insurance policy even in the case of severe violations and certainly in the case of small- to medium-sized violations. It gives Iran a powerful tool to stonewall the [International Atomic Energy Agency], undermine the dispute resolution mechanisms and deter U.N., E.U. and U.S. snapbacks,” he said.

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