Washington: US President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to move next week to trigger a “snapback” of international sanctions against Iran at the United Nations, despite abandoning the deal two years ago.
Trump made the announcement even as he dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call for a summit of world leaders to discuss increasing Iran tensions, saying he probably would not participate.
“We’ll be doing a snapback,” Trump told reporters on Saturday, one day after the UN Security Council rejected a US bid to extend a UN arms embargo on Iran.
“You’ll be watching it next week.”
The United States has threatened to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran using a provision in a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as snapback, even though Trump abandoned the accord in 2018.
Diplomats have said the US would face a tough, messy battle in any such move.
In a social media post, Jarrett Blanc, a former US State Department official involved with the Iran nuclear deal, warned about the consequence of Trump’s decision.
“The cost will be a devastating loss of UNSC authority that will damage the US role in the world for the foreseeable future – but the Trump Administration manifestly is not too worried about damage done to the country rather than to its own ambition,” he wrote.
US ‘humiliation’
The US lost its bid on Friday to extend the UN arms embargo after Putin proposed a summit of world leaders to avoid “confrontation” over the American “snapback” threat.
“Probably not,” Trump said when asked whether he would participate in the Putin-backed summit.
In the Security Council vote, Russia and China opposed extending the weapons ban, which is due to expire in October.
