Pompeo says US to soon invoke mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran

UNITED NATIONS — After a resounding defeat in the UN Security Council, the United States is poised to call for the United Nations to reimpose sanctions on Iran under a rarely used diplomatic maneuver — a move that is likely to further isolate the Trump administration and may set off a credibility crisis for the United Nations.

The sanctions had been eased under the 2015 nuclear deal that US President Donald Trump withdrew from two years ago. But last week the US lost its long-shot bid to indefinitely extend an international arms embargo on Iran and has now moved to a new diplomatic line of attack.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the move would come “soon,” but he won’t discuss timing. He is expected to travel to New York tomorrow to notify the Security Council president that the US was invoking the “snapback” mechanism in the council’s resolution that endorsed the nuclear deal.

“I don’t have any announcements on timing about what we’re going to do, but the president’s made clear we’re going to do it soon and we will,” Pompeo tells reporters, brushing aside concerns that other nations may not recognize the American move.

“This will be a fully valid enforceable Security Council resolution and we have every expectation that it will be enforced just like every other Security Council resolution that is in place,” he says. ”We will be in full compliance with that and we have every expectation that every country in the world will live up to its obligations.”

Snapback allows participants to demand the restoration of all UN sanctions in a complicated procedure that cannot be blocked by a veto.

— AP