Iran’s FM Pens Important Letter to UN about US Push for 'Snapback' Sanctions


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has written to the UN Security Council about Washington’s new push to invoke the so-called snapback provision in the 2015 nuclear deal and re-impose all UN sanctions against Tehran.

In a letter addressed to the current president of the Security Council, the ambassador from Indonesia, Zarif has highlighted the legal and political aspects of the US move which runs counter to international rules and norms.

According to Tasnim, some excerpts of the letter will be published on Thursday by Iranian media outlets.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is desperately trying to make the case for the use of snapback against Iran from an internationally-backed deal that his boss, President Donald Trump, quit in 2018.

"This will be a fully valid, enforceable UN Security Council resolution," said Pompeo at a joint presser Wednesday, not long after the US failure in the Council to extend an arms embargo against Tehran, set to be lifted under the Iran nuclear deal in October.

The former CIA chief did not provide the precise legal justification for how the US plans to trigger snapback sanctions with US having withdrawn from the agreement.

Pompeo's move is expected to face with opposition from other signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and France.

The anti-Iran war hawk will meet Thursday afternoon with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at his private residence as well as with the current president of the Security Council.