On April 29, 2020, the Secretary of State Mike POMPEO is publicly arguing that the United States is still a participant in the Iran nuclear deal despite President Donald TRUMP’s stated withdrawal from the accord in 2018.

He said the US intends to take action to extend a conventional weapons embargo on Tehran that is legally set to end under the Iran nuclear deal, provoking anger and disbelief from European allies who point out the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

The US are more determined to isolate the country and pressure the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran, and re-introduce harsh sanctions in the wake of the novel coronavirus.

The Secretary of State will approve a plan under which the US would legally claim to remain a “participant state” in the nuclear accord TRUMP rubbished, for the sole purpose of invoking a “snapback” that would restore UN sanctions on Iran which were in place before the accord.

POMPEO said: “We’re not going to let that happen”. The administration is urging the E3 — Germany, France, and the United Kingdom – “to take action which is within their capacity today”.

“We’ll work with the UN Security Council to extend that prohibition on those arms sales” POMPEO continued.

“And then in the event we can’t get anyone else to act, the US is evaluating every possibility about how we might do that”.

“UN Security Council Resolution 2231 is unambiguous where the United States is a participant”. “It’s just there in the language. There’s nothing magic about this.”

POMPEO added that “the rights that accrue to participants in the UN Security Council resolution are fully available to all those participants” indicating that the US may seek to use the resolution to force other countries to reinstate sanctions against Iran.

The resolution does indeed list the US as a deal participant.

It also states that the US “will refrain from re-introducing or re-imposing the sanctions … that it has ceased applying under this [accord] without prejudice to the dispute resolution process”.

Some countries are trying to work with the US to clearly understand the challenge and walk through the ramifications of a move to snap back sanctions. However, US officials don’t expect other parties to the deal – France, Germany, the European Union, Russia, and China – to agree with the US proposal.

Those countries have signaled displeasure with the US maximum pressure campaign, which has levied heavy sanctions against Iran.

“A policy based on coercion only will not make it” said a European diplomat, speaking about the looming embargo deadline and sanctions regime.

“It has been two years now and the expectation has been that Iran will just realize that they should get back to the table and accept a broader and more intrusive and demanding deal and they have not”.

This article was edited using the data from the al-monitor.com, cnn.com, and english.alaraby.co.uk. 

Source of the photo: thestandard.com.hk.