US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused European allies of “siding with the ayatollahs” after they said the US could not reimpose sanctions on Iran.
The UK, France and Germany said the US did not have the legal right to trigger “snapback” sanctions because it pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
The US has controversially initiated a process at the UN Security Council to reinstate the UN sanctions.
They were lifted under the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement.
“No country but the United States has had the courage and conviction to put forward a resolution. Instead, they chose to side with the ayatollahs,” Mr Pompeo said after formally submitting a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance with the deal.
Other countries on the Security Council will have 30 days to adopt a resolution to avert the snapback. But, as a permanent member, the US will be able to exercise its veto power.
The US would do everything it could to enforce the sanctions on Iran if they were violated, Pompeo added.
The Trump administration’s move comes a week after the council rejected its bid to extend indefinitely an arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October.
Pompeo said it would be an “enormous mistake” not to extend the arms embargo, adding that the US would never allow Iran to buy and sell conventional weapons such as tanks.
Under the nuclear deal, the P5+1 group of powers – the US, China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany – gave Iran sanctions relief in return for limits on its sensitive activities and international inspections to show it was not developing nuclear weapons.
The accord has been close to collapse since the US withdrew and reinstated economic sanctions in 2018 in an attempt to force Iran to negotiate a replacement that would place indefinite curbs on its nuclear programme and also halt its development of ballistic missiles.
Iran has so far refused and has retaliated by rolling back key commitments, including those on the production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear warheads.
The five powers still party to the deal have tried to keep it alive, although the UK, France and Germany triggered a formal dispute mechanism over the Iranian breaches in January that could ultimately lead to the snapback of UN sanctions. — NNN-AGENCIES