Today, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to New York to ask the UN Security Council to re-impose international sanctions on Iran, and Pompeo warned that any country - including Russia and China - would oppose Washington’s efforts to return sanctions, which was rejected by Moscow.

It is expected that the US Secretary of State will meet with the President of the Security Council, Diane Triansyah Dajani, to officially inform him that America believes that Iran has violated the Iran nuclear agreement concluded in 2015, and that the sanctions that were lifted must be returned in exchange for Tehran's compliance with its obligations in the nuclear deal.

Pompeo will discuss the request to activate the snap back mechanism stipulated in the nuclear agreement with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the mechanism provides for the re-imposition of Security Council sanctions on Iran after 30 days following the complaint of one of the signatories to the agreement, without being Russia or China have the right to veto the mechanism's activation.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that his country will reimpose all United Nations sanctions on Iran that were previously suspended, adding that his administration withdrew "from the disastrous nuclear agreement with Iran, which was the product of the failed foreign policy of the administration of Barack Obama and his deputy, Joe Biden." Trump has pledged to conclude a new nuclear deal with Iran during the first month of his presidency if he wins the upcoming presidential election.


The arms embargo and the Trump administration says it is activating the restoration mechanism to secure an extension of the arms embargo on Iran, which expires in October, and failed to extend it during the Security Council vote last week. However, most other Security Council members - including Washington's European allies - deny their right to activate this mechanism, on the grounds that it is no longer a party to the nuclear deal, as the Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in May 2018.

In a related context, the British newspaper "The Times" reported that the United States has intensified pressure on Britain to support its move to re-impose international sanctions that were imposed on Iran, including the extension of the arms embargo. The British newspaper reported that the United States wonders whether the United Kingdom "supports allowing the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons?" She added that a senior American diplomat asked for clarification of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's position in this regard.

On the other hand, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Tehran, Abdul Qadir Fayez, said that Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif will address the President of the Security Council today in a written letter to clarify his country's view on America's efforts to restore international sanctions against it.

Russia and China
On the other hand, the US Secretary of State threatened today to punish any country - including Russia and China - that might oppose Washington's efforts to re-apply all international sanctions on Iran.

Moscow denounced Pompeo's statements, describing his threats as absurd and unjustified legally or politically, and Sergey Ryabkov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, warned that this US move would lead to a crisis in the UN Security Council.

All the sanctions imposed on Iran since 2005 will automatically revert to Iran, and according to the "trigger mechanism" in the nuclear agreement, no country can prevent this and the United States according to this mechanism has a "double veto" https://t.co/p3Yt13m6WC

- M.Majed Muhammad Majeed (@MohamadAhwaze) August 19, 2020

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the international community to confront Washington's plans to resume Security Council sanctions against Iran.

It is noteworthy that the nuclear agreement concluded between Iran, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, France and the United States aims to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

In response to what the United States describes as a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran, which includes imposing unilateral sanctions, in an attempt to compel Tehran to negotiate a new agreement; Iran has exceeded major limits in the nuclear deal, including the maximum stockpile of enriched uranium.