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WORLD NEWS Monday 21 SepteMber 2020
UN chief: No UN support for reimposing Iran sanctions now

By EDITH M. LEDERER Under the "snapback" pro-
Associated Press vision, U.N. sanctions eased
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — or lifted by the nuclear deal
Secretary-General Antonio are re-imposed and must
Guterres says the United be enforced by U.N. mem-
Nations will not support re- ber states. Those would in-
imposing sanctions on Iran clude hitting Iran with pen-
as the United States is de- alties for uranium enrich-
manding until he gets a ment to any level, ballistic
green light from the Secu- missile activity and buying
rity Council. or selling conventional
The U.N. chief said in a let- weapons.
ter to the council presi- Those bans were either re-
dent obtained Sunday by moved or set to expire un-
The Associated Press that der the terms of the 2015
"there would appear to be deal in which Iran was
uncertainty" on whether or granted billions of dollars
not U.S. Secretary of State in sanctions relief in return
Mike Pompeo triggered the for curbs on its nuclear pro-
"snapback" mechanism in gram.
the Security Council resolu- China and Russia have
tion that enshrined the 2015 In this Aug. 21, 2019 file photo, a man counts his banknotes and traveler checks in Tehran, Iran. been particularly adamant
nuclear deal between Iran Associated Press in rejecting the U.S. posi-
and six major powers. tion, but U.S. allies have not
The Trump administration nificant non-performance" ticipating. Therefore, Guterres said: been shy either.
declared Saturday that with its obligations under Guterres noted in the letter "It is not for the secretary- In a letter sent Friday to the
all U.N. sanctions against the accord, known as the that "the Security Council general to proceed as if no Security Council president,
Iran have been restored, Joint Comprehensive Plan has taken no action subse- such uncertainty exists." Britain, France and Germa-
a move most of the rest of of Action, or JCPOA. quent to the receipt of the The U.N. Secretariat, which ny — the three European
the world rejects as illegal But the overwhelming ma- letter of the U.S. secretary Guterres heads, provides participants who remain
and is likely to ignore. The jority of members in the of state, neither have any support to the Security committed to the agree-
U.S. announcement is cer- 15-nation council call the of its members or its presi- Council in implementing ment — said the U.S. an-
tain to cause controversy U.S. action illegal because dent." sanctions including estab- nouncement "is incapable
during the U.N.'s annual President Donald Trump He said the majority of lishing committees and of having legal effect," so it
high-level meetings of the pulled the United States out council members have panels of experts to moni- cannot reimpose sanctions
General Assembly start- of the plan in 2018. written to the council presi- tor their implementation on Iran.
ing Monday, which is be- They point to Security dent "to the effect that the along with websites on the Russia's deputy ambassa-
ing held mainly virtually this Council Resolution 2231, letter did not constitute a nature of sanctions and dor to the U.N., Dmitry Poly-
year because of the CO- which endorsed the nucle- notification" that "snap- lists of those on sanctions anskiy, said the U.S. had
VID-19 pandemic. ar agreement. It states that back" was triggered. And blacklists. only isolated itself. "It's very
The U.S. announcement "a JCPOA participant state" he said the presidents of Guterres said the U.N. won't painful to see how a great
came 30 days after Pom- can trigger the "snapback" the council for August and take any action "pending country humiliates itself like
peo notified the council mechanism. The U.S. insists September "have indicat- clarification by the Security this, opposes in its obstinate
that the administration that as an original partici- ed that they were not in a Council" on whether or not delirium other members of
was triggering "snapback" pant it has the legal right, position to take any action sanctions that have been U.N. Security Council," he
because Iran was in "sig- even though it ceased par- in regard to this matter." lifted should be reimposed. wrote on Twitter. q

Baltic Sea ferry runs aground in Finnish waters, no injuries

HELSINKI (AP) — A Baltic Viking Line said in a short ing," Hanses told YLE, add-
Sea passenger ferry with statement adding that the ing that water had leaked
nearly 300 people aboard situation with the vessel into one of the vessel's sec-
ran aground in the Aland was "stable." The vessel had tions but was unable to
Islands archipelago be- 200 passengers and a crew specify how bad the leak-
tween Finland and Sweden of 80 aboard. age was. The coast guard
without injuries Sunday, The coast guard were said it hadn't observed oil
and rescuers evacuated alerted to the incident just leakage in the area as a
the vessel's passengers before 1 p.m. Finnish time, result of the grounding.
to shore, Finnish authori- and rescue boats evacu- The number of passengers
ties said. The Finnish coast ated those onboard to aboard the vessel, capa-
guard tweeted that the shore. Authorities were in- ble of carrying up to 2,500
M/S Amorella operated by vestigating why the ferry people, was unusually low
ferry company Viking Line ran aground. because of the Nordic re-
between the Finnish west- Viking Line CEO Jan Hans- gion's coronavirus travel re- Viking Line's cruise ship M/S Amorella is seen near the Aland
ern port city of Turku and es told the Finnish public strictions which have badly islands, seen from Finland, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020.
Swedish capital Stockholm broadcaster YLE that the hit Baltic Sea ferry compa- Associated Press
hit ground south of the port accident was caused ei- nies. Amorella was set to make unnamed islands and its
of Langnas in the Aland ther by technical failure or The Aland Islands, an au- a scheduled stop there en shallow waters and narrow
Islands near the Julgrund human error. tonomous Finnish territory, route to Stockholm. passages are particularly
island "There are no re- "Something has gone are midway between the The archipelago consists of tricky to navigate for large
ported human casualties," wrong with the ship's steer- two port cities and M/S thousands of named and ships. q