US snapback mechanism nothing but propaganda ploy to save Trump: Iran's Shamkhani
Iran's top security official says the United States’ attempt to reinstate the United Nations sanctions on Tehran is nothing but a propaganda ploy to save US President Donald Trump ahead of the November presidential election.
"US knows that it can neither reimpose UN sanctions nor UN arms embargo on #Iran," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani tweeted late on Friday.
He added that White House warmongers should think of another way to reduce the hatred of the American people toward Trump.
As part of an illegal underway push, the United States is trying to invoke a “snapback” mechanism in the multilateral 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), despite its withdrawal in May 2018 in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorses the accord.
The United States' most prominent Western allies have refused to fall into step with its push to snap back the United Nations sanctions against Iran.
The United Kingdom, France, and Germany, all signatories to the JCPOA, say the US does not have the legal right to trigger "snapback" sanctions because it pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.
Russia and China, the other two JCPOA parties, have also strongly expressed their opposition to the US request.
Speaking at a regular press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the United States’ call for the re-imposition of the UN sanctions on Iran is ‘nothing but a self-serving political manipulation,’ stressing once again that Washington has no right to make such a demand after its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA.
Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia also on Thursday rejected the American plan as “nonexistent,” saying only a country that is still a party to the Iran nuclear deal can invoke the return of the sanctions.
"A [sanctions] snapback can be triggered by a country that is a participant of the JCPOA, of which the United States is not. They officially withdrew from the JCPOA. That’s a question that inevitably every other delegation at the Security Council agrees on", Nebenzia told reporters.
He added, “We consider a snapback nonexistent, we will not take it as a snapback – what they will presumably notify today the presidency of the Security Council.”
The United States was further isolated on Friday over its bid to reimpose international sanctions on Iran as 13 countries of the 15-member UN Security Council expressed their opposition to the US snapback push.
They argued that Washington’s move is void given it is using a process agreed under a nuclear deal that it quit two years ago.
In a post on his Instagram account on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said the US administration’s attempt to snap back sanctions against Tehran will result in nothing but another disgrace for US President Trump.
The United States acted after the Security Council resoundingly rejected its bid last week to extend an arms embargo on Iran beyond its expiration in October as the Dominican Republic was the only country that joined Washington in voting yes.
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