President Trump will force all nations to renew sanctions lifted in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if world leaders refuse to extend an arms embargo that expires to the regime, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned.
“It would remind the world that Obama administration officials said very clearly that the United States has the unilateral ability to implement sanctions,” Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday.
That legal argument irritates allied governments, given that Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018. Pompeo underscored that option as US officials try to convince Western allies, as well as Russia and China, to endorse a resolution. from the United Nations Security Council that could extend an arms sales ban that expires in October.
“It is unacceptable that the Europeans have teams inside Iran, they move to Iran, which can threaten the Europeans,” Pompeo said. “Belgium, Denmark are in danger due to the expiration of an arms embargo on the world’s largest state terror sponsor.”
The snapback authority allows the United States to extend the arms embargo through a legal process that Russia and China cannot veto. However, that move would imply the final destruction of the nuclear deal because of objections from the European Union and Western European allies, who believe the deal disabled a nuclear crisis.
The Trump administration’s relationship with European governments has been further affected by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, including Trump’s unexpected decision to ban travel from the European Union in March, which the EU soon reciprocated. European officials can continue to ban travel from the US. Even when they reopen in other regions, in an implicit criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus.
“We have to make sure we have all the elements to reopen travel between the EU and the United States,” said Pompeo. “We are working to find the right way to do it, the right time to do it, the right tactics to have it in place. We certainly don’t want to reopen [in a way] That endangers the United States of the people who travel here. And we certainly don’t want to cause trouble anywhere else. ”
He expressed the hope of a cooperative spirit on the issue of the arms embargo. “I am very hopeful that when we get to the point where this decision must be made, everyone will come to the same understanding that the United States has: that it is dangerous for the world that this has expired,” Pompeo said.
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