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Disappointed with the lack of support it has received from Europe to protect its trade and economy in the face of crushing US sanctions brought in over the past two years, Iran has been gradually scaling back its compliance with the nuclear deal in an effort at pressuring the ‘EU 3’ to provide more assistance to counter US pressure.
2.5​ ​June date approval by Guardian Council for Iran’s presidential election
Iran's constitutional watchdog on August 24 earmarked June 18 as the date for the country's next presidential election. The vote will choose the successor to President Hassan Rouhani who will have served two consecutive four-year terms in office, the maximum allowed under law.
The watchdog, the Guardian Council, approved the date, Iranian election headquarters chief Jamal Orf informed the official IRNA news agency. Candidates hoping to run in the election are to apply in early April for approval; the final list of candidates is to be announced in early June.
Rouhani, a pragmatic-centrist first elected in 2013 and re-elected four years later, attempted to move Iran forward economically and in its relations with the outside world by agreeing the 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers. But the arrival of US President Donald Trump in office in 2017 threw those plans into disarray, particularly after Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the accord in May 2018 and reintroduced sanctions in an effort at forcing another renegotiation of Iran’s role in the Middle East, including with regard to its nuclear and ballistic missile development programmes and alliances with various militias in Middle East conflict zones.
The outcome of the US election in November and the relations between Tehran and Washington that seem likely to result from its outcome will have a major bearing on the Iranian presidential election.
2.6​ ​Security council crisis ahead as Trump vows to unilaterally ‘snapback’ UN sanctions on Iran
Donald Trump on August 15 vowed to unilaterally reinstate United Nations sanctions on Tehran following the failure of the US to win support for an extension of a UN arms embargo on Iran, a defeat Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said was humiliating.
A day after the UN security council overwhelmingly rejected a US resolution to extend the embargo, US President Trump said at a news conference at his New Jersey golf club: “We’ll be doing a snapback. You’ll be watching it next week.”
However, if the US attempts to unilaterally bring in the ‘snapback’, it would almost certainly lead to a crisis in the security council. To do so, Washington plans to argue that although it pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers in May 2018, it nevertheless remained a ‘member’ of the agreement and is thus entitled to unilaterally invoke a provision of it that would relaunch sanctions if it concludes that Iran has breached the deal’s terms.
10​ IRAN Country Report September 2020 www.intellinews.com