UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and most of the rest of the U.N. Security Council dug in their heels Thursday on diametrically opposed positions over the restoration of international sanctions on Iran.
In increasingly intense rhetorical terms, U.S. officials insisted they had acted legitimately in triggering a so-called “snapback” mechanism that would re-impose all U.N. sanctions Iran next month. They said the re-imposition of sanctions is a done deal and nothing can stop it.
“Last week, the U.S. triggered the 30-day process to restore virtually all UN sanctions on Iran after the Security Council failed to uphold its mission to maintain international peace and security,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet. “These sanctions will snap back at midnight GMT on September 20.”
But as they did when Pompeo traveled to the U.N. to invoke snapback, almost all other council members flatly rejected that position, repeating their position that the U.S. had lost its legal standing to act after President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal two years ago.
At the heart of the dispute is the Security Council resolution that endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, between Iran and six major powers — the U.S., Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
It allows “a JCPOA participant state” to trigger the “snapback” mechanism. The U.S. insists that as an original JCPOA participant it has the legal right even though it ceased participating in 2018.
The impasse sets the stage for a potential crisis in the Security Council next month with the United States claiming to have re-imposed the sanctions and most of the rest of the world saying the Trump administration’s action is illegal and ignoring it.
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