Pompeo triggers snapback sanctions on Iran at UN

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday notified the United Nations that the U.S. is initiating the process to reinstate all U.N. sanctions on Iran that were previously lifted under the Obama-era nuclear deal.

The snapback sanctions will extend an arms embargo on Iran that was set to expire in October and further restrict the country from conducting ballistic missile testing, the secretary said.

“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 said in New York.

President Trump in 2018 withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but has argued the U.N. retains authority under the resolution enshrining the deal — U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231 — and the ability to reinstate sanctions.

The snapback sanctions are likely to take effect within 30 days and sets up a series of confrontations between the U.S. and other U.N. Security Council members opposed to the move.

Security Council members have an opportunity to put forth a resolution calling to extend sanctions relief on Iran. That resolution can be vetoed by any permanent member of the group — likely the U.S. — and the sanctions are expected to go into effect within 30 days.

The move by the Trump administration to reimpose sanctions on Iran comes after a failed attempt to renew an arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in October and would allow the country to buy and sell conventional weapons.

The resolution garnered only two “yes” votes, from the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, while 11 countries abstained and two voted “no.”

Pompeo on Thursday thanked the Dominican Republic for voting for the extension of the arms embargo and said that Germany, France and the United Kingdom expressed privately to U.S. officials their desire to see the arms embargo extended as well.

“Our friends in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, they all told me privately that they don’t want the arms embargo lifted, either,” Pompeo said.