Iran Warns US against Bid to Restore UN Sanctions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The UN Security Council president’s statement that the US’ push to restore the UN sanctions on Iran is null and void indicates that the American attempt would have legal consequences, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
In an interview with IRIB on Wednesday, Saeed Khatibzadeh hailed the UN Security Council’s opposition to Washington’s ploys against Iran.
“The truth is that the United States once again suffered another historic defeat last night at the (UN) Security Council, after the August 14 failure when it had called for the extension of the arms embargo on the Islamic Republic of Iran and was facing opposition from the (UNSC) member states,” he said.
“The US once again faced opposition from all UNSC member states on August 20, when it handed out a notification to the members,” the spokesperson added.
“Maybe for the first time in the history of the Security Council, one of the council’s permanent members faced a big ‘No’ (again) in less than ten days, and for the first time, the Security Council’s president announced officially that the United States basically lacks the competence to hand out such a notification to the member states.
“The fact that the president of the Security Council reads such a statement announcing that the US’ demand is null and void would have very serious legal consequences,” he emphasized.
“The US is very angry and upset at last night’s incident, to the extent that the US ambassador to the United Nations has even attacked the European allies and called them partners of Iran,” the Iranian diplomat said.
“What happened was the eighth or maybe ninth failure for the United States over the past months. However, we hope that our JCPOA partners and the Security Council’s permanent and non-permanent members would continue to show that they won’t let the US abuse the Security Council with intimidation, employ it as an instrument, and violate and break international law,” the spokesman said, according to IFP News.
Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington had formally notified the UN that it wants all sanctions on Iran restored, claiming Iranian violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Washington withdrew in 2018.
Last night, the Indonesian president of the UN Security Council rejected the Trump administration’s demand to restore all UN sanctions against Iran, saying the council was “not in the position to take further action” on Washington’s bid to trigger the snapback mechanism in the JCPOA.