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English, French, and German said the US has no legal right to trigger “snapback” sanctions for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was angry at the rejection of the US plan. He accused Britain, France and Germany of supporting Ayatollah.
“No country other than the United States has the courage and confidence to come up with a resolution. Instead, they chose to side with Ayatollah,” Pompeo said after formally filing a complaint accusing Iran of not complying with the deal. BBC, Friday (21/8/2020).
Other countries on the Security Council have 30 days to adopt a resolution to prevent snapbacks. However, as a permanent member, the US will be able to exercise its veto power.
“The US will do everything it can to enforce sanctions against Iran if they are violated,” Pompeo added.
The Trump administration’s move comes a week after the UN Security Council (DK) rejected its resolution to extend an indefinite arms embargo on Iran that expires in October.(Read: UN Refuses to Extend Iran Arms Embargo)
Pompeo said it would be a grave mistake not to extend the arms embargo, adding that the US would never allow Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons such as tanks.
“Their actions endanger the people of Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and even their own citizens,” he said, referring to the decision of their European allies.
“America will not join in this leadership failure. America will not calm down. America will take the lead, “he was quoted as saying The Guardian. (Read: Officially, the US Activates the 2015 Nuclear Treaty ‘Snapback’ Clause)
Earlier Britain joined France and Germany in a joint statement saying the US could not use “snapback” measures to reimpose sanctions on Iran because it is no longer part of the nuclear deal.
“France, Germany and Britain, called E3, noted that the United States has not been a member of the JCPOA since their withdrawal from the agreement on 8 May 2018,” said the three US allies’ foreign ministers; Jean-Yves Le Drian (France), Heiko Maas (Germany) and Dominic Raab (England) in a statement.
“Therefore, E3 cannot support US requests for UN sanctions against Iran to be reinstated, as that is inconsistent with their current efforts to implement the deal,” the trio added.
The JCPOA stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the name given to the 2015 nuclear accord negotiated by the Obama administration, which was endorsed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. (Read: European Trio Reject US Enabling ‘Snapback’ Clause)
Apart from maintaining an arms embargo, strict sanctions would force Iran to suspend all activities related to nuclear enrichment and reprocessing, and prohibit the import of anything that could contribute to such activities or the development of a nuclear weapons delivery system.
Sanctions against dozens of individuals and entities will also be reinstated.
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