Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Says US Will Seek To Reinstate UN Sanctions On Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the United States will take steps to snap back all United Nations’ sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Pompeo claimed that the sanctions will essentially extend an arms embargo on Iran, although the U.N. Security Council recently voted to let the embargo expire later this year.

"The United States will never allow the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism to freely buy and sell planes, tanks, missiles and other kinds of conventional weapons," Pompeo told journalists at the U.N. in New York. "These U.N. sanctions will continue the arms embargo."

“We fully support the U.S.’ decision to request that UN sanctions on Iran be reinstated via the snapback mechanism. Reimposing the UN sanctions on Iran is a critical step to curbing Iranian aggression,” Israel envoy to the U.N. Gilad Erdan said in response to Pompeo’s announcement.

Germany, France and the United Kingdom have argued that the U.S. could not snap back the sanctions, as the U.S. left the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Other countries on the Security Council will have 30 days to avert the snapback, but the U.S. will be able to use its veto power as a permanent member of the body.

President Donald Trump has harshly criticized the Iran deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program,” Trump said in 2018.

Under the JCPOA, Iran has to agree to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and submit to international inspections of its nuclear sites. In return, crippling economic sanctions imposed on the Middle Eastern country would be lifted.