The United States will " soon " activate a controversial mechanism aimed at imposing on the UN Security Council the reinstatement of all international sanctions against Iran, declared Wednesday (August 19th) the head of American diplomacy Mike Pompeo.
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President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that this so-called “ snapback ” procedure could take place this week. Asked about the exact date, Mike Pompeo did not respond. " The president has made it clear that we will do it soon, and that is what we are going to do, " he said at a press conference in Washington.
"Snapback"
The " snapback " aims to restore all the international sanctions against Iran which were lifted after the signing in 2015 with Tehran of an agreement supposed to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Donald Trump withdrew the United States from this agreement in 2018, which he considers insufficient, and has already re-imposed and even toughened unilateral American sanctions. However, this approach is based on a contested legal interpretation: Mike Pompeo intends to invoke for his country the status of " participant " in the same nuclear agreement that he has nevertheless left.
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According to the 2015 resolution ratifying the text, “ participating ” states have the possibility of unilaterally denouncing “ significant non-compliance ” with their “ commitments ” by another signatory. This unprecedented procedure is supposed to make it possible, at the end of 30 days, to reestablish, or “ snapback ”, sanctions, without the possibility for others, such as Moscow or Beijing, to veto them.
But almost all of the other members of the Security Council, including Washington's European allies, dispute this interpretation, and therefore are unlikely to agree to reinstate these punitive measures.
" We are optimistic that all countries will see that it is in their own interests to respect the resolution of the Security Council ", nevertheless assured the American secretary of state. " We expect that all the countries of the world will respect their obligations, including each country of the P5 ", which brings together the permanent members of the Security Council (United States, China, Russia, France, United Kingdom).