Politics of UNSC Sanctions: The Issue of Nuclear Weapons Development

The paper tries to explain the imposition of sanctions by the UNSC on Iran and North Korea and the absence of UNSC sanctions on India and Pakistan. Although there are aspects in the sanctions on Iran and North Korea which are specific to each country, there are basic criteria that are central to the sanctions imposed on both countries. The main objective of the UNSC sanctions on North Korea and Iran were to 1) stop any kind of nuclear trade with these countries; 2) to stop any conventional military trade; 3) to stop the export of any dual-use technology to these two countries; 4) Freeze on the financial assets of these two countries and 5) to prohibit the movement of personnel affiliated with the nuclear programmes of these two countries. Therefore, UNSC sanctions are operationalized or defined in this study as a UN resolution that forbids any kind of nuclear trade, forbids conventional military trade, stops the export of dual use technology, freezes assets of the target country and forbids the movement of personnel affiliated with the nuclear programme in their respective countries.