Pakistan lifts all sanctions on Iran

Hopes to revive relations in areas of energy, finance,
banking, trade, investment and technology

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has officially lifted all the sanctions on Iran and hopes to revive plans to kick-start economic relations in areas of energy, finance, banking, trade, investment and technology.

A notification was issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after an inter-ministerial meeting on Friday morning chaired by Minister of Finance Senator Ishaq Dar. The notification also repeals all the previous UN notifications on sanctions.

The meeting was also attended by senior officials from the Foreign Office.“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the issuing authority and the notification has gone for printing. The SRO provides broad guidelines. Various ministries would be examining the impact of removal of sanctions in their respective areas,” the Foreign Office spokesman told The News.

He added that the relevant notification would be posted on the website of Foreign Office on Monday.Earlier this week, Commerce Minister Khurrum Dastgir had stated that  lifting of the sanctions would ensure a huge rise in bilateral trade where Pakistan could export goods worth $1 billion to Iran.

In a statement to the Khaleej Times, he said: “Pakistan and Tehran have completed their arrangements to resume full scale trade. Alongside boosting trade, the move will also help Pakistan beat the energy crisis, raise output and shore up dwindling exports, as the stalled and sanctions-hit Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project gets completed.”

Sanctions on Iran were imposed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which Pakistan had to abide by. Later, this resolutionwas repealed by the UN Resolution 2331 (2015), which  provided for the termination of provisions of the previous Security Council resolutions on the Iranian nuclear issue and establishes specific restrictions that apply to all states without exception.

Member states are obligated under Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations to accept and carry out the Security Council’s decisions.It was after a nuclear deal reached with Iran that the UN website on nuclear sanctions posted that diplomatic efforts to reach a comprehensive, long-term and proper solution to the Iranian nuclear issue culminated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded on 14 July 2015 by China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, the High Representative of the European Union (the E3/EU+3) and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On 20 July 2015, the Security Council unanimously adopted the Resolution 2231 (2015) endorsing the JCPOA.The Security Council affirmed that conclusion of the JCPOA marked a fundamental shift in its consideration of the Iranian nuclear issue, expressed its desire to build a new relationship with Iran strengthened by the implementation of the JCPOA and to bring to a satisfactory conclusion its consideration of this matter.

The Security Council further affirmed that full implementation of the JCPOA would contribute to building confidence in the exclusively-peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme and emphasized that the JCPOA is conducive to promoting and facilitating the development of normal economic and trade contacts and cooperation with Iran.