President Trump said his administration will call for all United Nations sanctions against Iran to be reimposed after the United States failed to extend a U.N. arms embargo.
“Today, I am directing the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to notify the U.N. Security Council that the United States intends to restore virtually all of the previously suspended United Nations sanctions on Iran,” Trump said during a Wednesday evening news briefing.
U.N. Security Council members Russia and China both oppose the U.S. move to “snapback” sanctions, as Trump described it. The move will likely trigger a major diplomatic row within the Security Council, given the controversial nature of the veto-proof action. The Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration, stipulated that any signatory nations could re-trigger the sanctions if Iran substantially violated the terms of the pact meant to freeze portions of Tehran’s nuclear program, a provision the U.S. is planning to invoke despite withdrawing from the agreement in 2018.
Russia and China have argued that the U.S. forfeited its ability to trigger the snapback sanctions, given its exit from the deal. Iran has also broken nearly every stricture of the pact since the U.S. departure.
Despite the concerns of a diplomatic crisis among some countries in the international community, Pompeo said on Wednesday that the resumption of sanctions would “be a fully valid, enforceable U.N. Security Council resolution.”
While Tehran is highly opposed to the move, Iranian dissidents have praised the notion of invoking snapback sanctions. On Wednesday, Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s Washington office, said that “under no circumstances should this outlaw regime have unrestricted access to purchase or sell weapons.”
The proposal comes after the U.S. failed to extend a U.N. arms embargo against Iran that is set to expire in October. Other than the U.S., only the Dominican Republic voted in favor of it, while European allies decided to abstain from the vote.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that Pompeo will be in New York on Thursday and Friday to begin the process of initiating the snapback sanctions. She called the Security Council’s rejection of the arms embargo extension an “inexcusable failure.”
“Thirty days after Secretary Pompeo’s notification, a range of UN sanctions will be restored, including the requirement that Iran suspend all enrichment-related activities. This will also extend the 13-year arms embargo on Iran,” Ortagus said.
“Secretary Pompeo will also meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss Iran and other issues of shared concern,” she added.
