UN chief says won’t support reimposing Iran sanctions without okay from Security Council

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the United Nations will not support reimposing sanctions on Iran as the United States is demanding until he gets a green light from the Security Council.

The UN chief says in a letter to the council president obtained by The Associated Press that “there would appear to be uncertainty” on whether or not US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo triggered the “snapback” mechanism in the Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers.

The Trump administration declared yesterday that all UN sanctions against Iran have been restored, a move most of the rest of the world rejects as illegal and is likely to ignore. The US announcement is certain to cause controversy during the UN’s annual high-level meetings of the General Assembly starting Monday, which is being held mainly virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US announcement came 30 days after Pompeo notified the council that the administration was triggering “snapback” because Iran was in “significant non-performance” with its obligations under the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

But the overwhelming majority of members in the 15-nation council call the US action illegal because President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the plan in 2018.

They point to Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear agreement. It states that “a JCPOA participant state” can trigger the “snapback” mechanism. The US insists that as an original participant it has the legal right, even though it ceased participating.

Guterres notes in the letter that “the Security Council has taken no action subsequent to the receipt of the letter of the US secretary of state, neither have any of its members or its president.”

He says the majority of council members have written to the council president “to the effect that the letter did not constitute a notification” that “snapback” was triggered. And he says the presidents of the council for August and September “have indicated that they were not in a position to take any action in regard to this matter.”

Therefore, Guterres says: “It is not for the secretary-general to proceed as if no such uncertainty exists.”

Guterres says the UN won’t take any action “pending clarification by the Security Council” on whether or not sanctions that have been lifted should be reimposed.

— AP