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US Triggers Snapback Sanctions on Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially initiated a United Nations process to reimpose sanctions under the Iran nuclear deal after failing to convince the U.N. to extend an Iranian arms embargo (see 2008170017 and 2008190036). Pompeo said other U.N. members privately wanted the arms embargo extended but did not stand publicly with the U.S.

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“Our friends in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom -- the E3 -- all told me privately that they don’t want the arms embargo lifted either,” Pompeo said Aug. 20. “And yet today, in the end, they provided no alternatives, no options. No country but the United States had the courage and conviction to put forward a resolution. Instead, they chose to side with ayatollahs.”

U.N. Security Council members will have 30 days to introduce a resolution to reject the snapback sanctions, but the U.S. can veto that resolution. Pompeo said the only way the U.S. will not go forward with the sanctions is if Iran “behave[s] like a normal nation and live[s] up to the commitments we’ve asked for.”

Pompeo also said the U.S. will be able to enforce the sanctions even if other members oppose. China’s Foreign Ministry has criticized U.S. attempts to invoke the sanctions, and a ministry spokesperson Aug. 21 said the U.S. “has no qualifications” to initiate the sanctions process because it withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “The participants in the comprehensive agreement and the vast majority of members of the Security Council believe that the U.S. request does not have any legal basis,” the spokesperson said, according to an unofficial translation.

Pompeo disagreed. “When the U.S. sanctions were violated, we enforced them,” he said. “When U.N. sanctions are violated, we’re going to do everything we can to enforce them as well.”

The Congressional Research Service also suggested snapback sanctions imposed by the U.S. may not be enforceable due to opposition within the U.N., it said in an Aug. 19 report. Security Council member states may simply refrain from implementing the sanctions, the CRS said. “It is not clear what entity or person might adjudicate the dispute over the U.S standing to do so, and it is not clear that a reimposition of sanctions would obtain broad international implementation,” the report said.

If the U.S. is not able to invoke the snapback sanctions, or if Security Council members do not support the move, the Trump administration might increase sanctions under its own sanctions authorities to “deter any arms sales to Iran,” the report said. The administration may also work with arms sellers to Iran to try to “dissuade them from completing any sales.”