U.S. urges U.N. to adopt Trump’s comprehensive approach to Iran

UNITED NATIONS – U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to adopt the Trump administration’s comprehensive approach to Iran and address all aspects of its “destructive conduct” – not just the 2015 nuclear deal.

She told the council that Iran “has repeatedly thumbed its nose” at council resolutions aimed at addressing Iranian support for terrorism and regional conflicts and has illegally supplied weapons to Yemen and Hezbollah militants in Syria and Lebanon.

“Worse, the regime continues to play this council,” Haley said. “Iran hides behind its assertion of technical compliance with the nuclear deal while it brazenly violates the other limits of its behavior, and we have allowed them to get away with it.”

“This must stop,” she said.

Haley cited a long list of Iranian violations, including threatening freedom of navigation in the Gulf, cyber-attacks, imprisonment of journalists and other foreigners, and abuses of its people by persecuting some religions and imprisoning gays and lesbians.

She called Iran’s “most threatening act its repeated ballistic missile launches including the launch this summer of an ICBM enabling missile.”

“This should be a clarion call to everyone in the United Nations,” Haley said.

“When a rogue regime starts down the path of ballistic missiles, it tells us that we will soon have another North Korea on our hands,” she said. “If it is wrong for North Korea to do this, why doesn’t that same mentality apply to Iran?”

Haley said the Security Council has the opportunity to change its policy toward Iran.

“I sincerely hope it will take this chance to defend not only the resolutions but peace, security and human rights in Iran,” she said.

“Judging Iran by the narrow confines of the nuclear deal misses the true nature of the threat,” Haley stressed. “Iran must be judged in totality of its aggressive, destabilizing and unlawful behavior. To do otherwise would be foolish.”

The Security Council has endorsed the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal which caps its nuclear program for about 10 years, and the agreement has the support of U.S. allies and the other veto-wielding council members Britain, France, Russia and China.

But getting the Security Council to take action against Iran for violations of council resolutions banning the transfer of conventional weapons, and more broadly for what the U.S. considers its support for terrorists and human rights violations is unlikely. It would require support from Russia, which like Hezbollah is in Syria supporting President Bashar Assad and has good relations with Iran.