Despite President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of Iran’s nuclear deal in 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the US has “any capacity” under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which anchored the international agreement, to trigger this – calling for snapback sanctions, because the US was initially a party to the deal.
“We have all the capacity under 2231 to do this,” Pompeo said, speaking on Thursday to reporters during his visit to the United Nations, where he formally informed the UN that the Trump administration was initiating the process to reinstate sanctions imposed on Tehran before the nuclear deal.
The top US diplomat pointed to Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as justification for the unilateral US movement. “It’s written, it’s simple, it’s very simple,” he said.
Pompeo added that a UN Security Council resolution can only be amended by a subsequent Security Council resolution.
‘Site with the ayatollahs’
Other countries that are party to the agreement – China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany – disagreed with Pompeo’s legal reason for the move, as many believe that the full return of UN sanctions would kill the 2015 agreement.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom, known as “the E3,” noted that “the US ceased to be a participant in the JCPOA after its withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2018,” in a joint statement on Thursday. “We can therefore not support this action, which is compatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA.”
Pompeo later told reporters that she “chose to side with the ayatollahs.”
When Trump pulled the US out of the international agreement, he called it “the worst deal ever negotiated.” The agreement offered Iran relief from a wide range of sanctions in exchange for a freeze on aspects of its nuclear program. Countries that remain in the deal claim that it was the only way to maintain dialogue with Iran and keep tabs on the development of its nuclear arsenal.
Russia and China were also critical of the US on Thursday.
“The US question has no legal basis and common sense. It is nothing more than a political performance staged by the United States,” a spokesman for China’s mission told the United Nations. “It receives no support from the members of the Security Council and no recognition from the international community.”
Security Council diplomats tell CNN that Russia convened a meeting on Friday to discuss the US decision to trigger a snapback of sanctions on Iran.
Legal reason
The State Department made a brief detailing of its legal reason for imposing sanctions to share with UNSC diplomats.
The brief states that in the text of the JCPOA, the term participants is “fixed in content and fixed over time, and delivers the States identified in the definition of that term, including the United States,” the brief states.
Using this reasoning, the brief argues that because the US was an original signatory to the deal, it remains a “participant,” even though the Trump administration has let it go, and can therefore reverse these crippling sanctions. twinge.
Despite a wide range of criticisms, Pompeo said the US is “confident” that a resolution to trigger these snapback sanctions will continue, but did not elaborate on the guarantees he received during his talks with UN officials. .
The next moves are uncertain and will largely be left to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who met with Pompeo on Thursday afternoon.
The US has been pushing for a reinstatement of Iran’s nuclear deal after it suffered a embarrassing loss to the Security Council last week in a bid to extend a conventional arms embargo on Tehran, which expires in October.
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