The Trump administration on Thursday formally notified the United Nations of its demand for all UN sanctions on Iran to be restored, setting off an immediate confrontation with Russia and other Security Council members, including America’s European allies, who called the US move illegal, AP reported.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered the notification to the president of the UN Security Council, citing significant Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, a requirement to “snap back” UN sanctions.
In a letter presented to Indonesia’s ambassador to the UN, Dian Triansyah Djani, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the council, Pompeo said the US was notifying the body of “significant non-performance” by Iran related to the nuclear deal. As a result, Pompeo said the process leading to the re-imposition of UN sanctions had been initiated.
Pompeo’s letter was accompanied by a six-page explanation of why the U.S. believes it retains the right to invoke snapback.
“The United States will never allow the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism to freely buy and sell planes, tanks, missiles and other kinds of conventional weapons ... (or) to have a nuclear weapon,” Pompeo told a UN press conference.
He said the US action will extend the arms embargo, which is set to expire October 18, and also prohibit Iran from ballistic missile testing and enrichment of nuclear material.
At the heart of the dispute is President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between six global powers and Iran.
The US maintains that under the Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement it retains the right as an initial party to invoke the provision to “snap back” sanctions. Russia, China, Britain, France and virtually all other council members say the Trump administration does not have the right since it is no longer a party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has reported some Iranian violations of the agreement, but Tehran says those are the result of the U.S. violating the accord by withdrawing from it and then re-imposing harsh unilateral sanctions.
