President Trump “has no right to trigger” a United Nations Security Council mechanism to destroy the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by reinvoking sanctions, according to a senior Chinese diplomat, whose argument garnered European support.
“Having quit the JCPOA, the U.S. is no longer a participant and has no right to trigger the snapback” of sanctions, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said during a virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council, using the formal acronym for the deal.
Germany agreed. “I would also align myself with what my Chinese colleague just said about the snapback mechanism,” German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said in concurrence.
Such statements foreshadow a major confrontation at the Security Council in October, when an international arms embargo is set to expire pursuant to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to snap back all of the international sanctions waived when the Iran deal was lifted if China or Russia veto a new Security Council resolution extending the arms embargo.
“The United States’s overwhelming preference is to work with this council to extend the arms embargo to protect human life, to protect our national security, and to protect yours,” Pompeo told the council earlier Tuesday.
Still, Pompeo’s team argues that the deal was written carefully, in a way that gives Trump the prerogative to invoke the snapback provision of the agreement regardless of whether the U.S. is in the pact.
“So, our right as a participant is something which exists independently of the JCPOA,” U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told reporters recently. “I’ve been working on U.N. Security Council resolutions for years. This is the plain reading of the text.”
Other Europeans indicated concern with the U.S. approach but were less explicit about denying the right of the U.S. to invoke the snapback.
“We intend to address this issue in close consultation with all members of this council, in particular the remaining participants in the JCPOA and other key actors,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said of the arms embargo’s expiration. “We would not, however, support unilateral proposals leading to the return of sanctions. They would only deepen divisions in the Security Council and beyond and would not be likely to improve the situation on the ground of nuclear non-proliferation.”
Heusgen echoed Pompeo’s concern about “the expiration of these limitations” on Iran’s ability to purchase weapons but suggested that other international import and export restrictions might hold the hope of a compromise.
