US in no position to snap back Security Council sanctions: Iran

Iran has dismissed propagation by certain foreign media outlets that a request by Washington would reinstate the United Nations Security Council’s sanctions against Tehran.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the US would never achieve its illegitimate objectives.

The current news stream, the Iranian official added, is preaching a situation where a mere request coming out of the White House has nullified the Security Council resolutions and re-imposed the sanctions subsequently.

“This is while the US has no authority to take such action and has only submitted a ‘request’ to the rotating president of the Security Council in a measure in violation of the international law and of the [UN Security Council] Resolution 2231.”

He noted that all parties to the multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have rejected such a request.

“The US has become so isolated even among its allies that it has called the three European countries (Britain, France and Germany) the allies of Iran’s ayatollahs,” the Iranian diplomat said.

He reiterated that all the remaining parties to the JCPOA, including the three European states, Russia and China, “immediately and strongly” opposed such a “groundless and illegal” request.

Khatibzadeh expected that the other members of the Council adopt a similar stance in the coming days.

As part of an illegal underway push, the United States is trying to invoke a “snapback” mechanism in the JCPOA despite its withdrawal in May 2018 in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorses the nuclear deal.

On Thursday, the United States’ most prominent Western allies refused to fall into step with the push to snap back the sanctions against Iran.

US knocked over the head by allies as it tries to snap back Iran sanctions

The United States most prominent Western allies refuse to fall into step with Washington’s push to snap back the United Nations’ sanctions against Iran.

Britain, France, and Germany said they could not support the United States in the move, describing Washington’s action as incompatible with efforts to support the 2015 deal, Reuters reported.

Read more:

• Zarif: US has no right to abuse JCPOA mechanisms to restore Iran sanctions
• Trump admin. to get isolated, disgraced once again: Iran FM
• 'Fully valid': US top diplomat desperately makes case for snapback against Iran

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khatibzadeh pointed to a recent meeting of the Security Council in which a US-initiated resolution on the extension of an arms embargo on Iran faced opposition from all member states, except one country, and said, “Washington will never achieve its illegitimate objective.”

He emphasized that the White House’s primary and final purpose is to promote economic terrorism against the Iranian people by resorting to political and unilateral tools, mostly psychological warfare and propaganda, and by disrupting the Islamic Republic's psychological and economic stability and security.

The spokesman said Iran's Foreign Ministry had made its utmost efforts and employed its full political and legal capacities over the past seven years to promote the powerful and logical image of Iran in the international arena and is currently trying to once again force the “American law-breakers” to experience isolation in line with its bids to counter the US unilateralism and law-breaking.

Although by leaving the JCPOA the United States forfeited all of its rights under the nuclear deal, it launched a bid earlier this year to prevent the expiry of an arms embargo against Iran that will take effect in October under the accord.

On August 14, the UN Security Council unanimously rejected a US resolution to extend an arms embargo on Iran in line with the JCPOA.

The resolution needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the Dominican Republic were the only “yes” votes.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the recent meeting of the Security Council marked a great political achievement and a historical victory for the Iranian nation.

President Rouhani: Recent Security Council meeting, political, historical victory for Iran

Iran’s President Rouhani says the US resounding failure at the recent UN Security Council meeting marked a great victory for Iranians.

“There is no precedent in history of the Security Council when 14 countries opposed [the US views]. This is a big political and historical success for us,” Rouhani stated.

Read more:

• Russia: US push to invoke Iran deal snapback ‘common sense mockery’
• FM Zarif: US effort to snap back Iran sanctions discredits UN Security Council
• Zarif: Failure of US-drafted anti-Iran resolution at UNSC proves change in intl. relations

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