Pompeo: Iran sanctions will snap back at midnight on Sep. 20
Sanctions on Iran will snap back at midnight GMT on
Sep. 20, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday.
“The US triggered the 30-day process to restore
virtually all UN sanctions on Iran after the Security Council failed to uphold
its mission to maintain international peace and security. These sanctions will
snap back at midnight GMT on September 20,” Pompeo tweeted.
His tweet comes after 13 council members expressed
their opposition to the US bid to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran
on Friday.
They argued that Washington’s move is void given it
is using a process agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world
powers that it quit two years ago.
However, the US argues that it can trigger the
process — known as snapback — because a 2015 Security Council resolution that
sets out the nuclear deal still names it as a participant.
The process to restore sanctions is a reaction to
the Security Council rejecting the US’s Aug. 14 bid to extend an arms embargo
on Iran beyond its expiration in October.
Pompeo on Thursday completed a trip of the Middle
East that sought to build on an American-brokered deal to have Israel and the
United Arab Emirates normalize relations.
The US Secretary of State discussed countering
Iranian regional influence with his Emirati counterpart during a brief visit to
the UAE as part of his tour.
