TEHRAN – Mohsen Rezaei, former chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump personally called European leaders just 24 hours before a crucial United Nations Security Council vote, instructing them not to support a resolution that would have blocked the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran.

Rezaei made these remarks at a Tuesday ceremony honoring Iran’s war martyr, condemning recent European actions as part of an illegitimate economic war against Iran, carried out without international legal justification.

The backdrop to this intervention centers on the so-called “snapback” mechanism triggered by the E3 countries — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — last month. The snapback process allows for the automatic reinstatement of UN sanctions on Iran if Tehran is found non-compliant with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The E3 accused Tehran of violations, seeking to restore all UN sanctions suspended under Resolution 2231.

According to Rezaei, European powers initially signaled that they would reject a second resolution proposed to delay sanctions enforcement. Chinese and Russian diplomats indicated that the Europeans would not oppose this resolution at the UN Security Council. However, Trump’s direct call changed this course, leading to the failure of the resolution. 

Iran has vehemently rejected the snapback move as illegitimate, citing the U.S.’s unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and accusing the European trio of violating their JCPOA commitments by aligning with unlawful sanctions instead of pursuing diplomatic engagement.

At the memorial ceremony held at the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare, attended by families of martyrs, Rezaei commemorated the sacrifices of the defenders of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

Addressing decades-long economic pressures on Iran, Rezaei noted that foreign adversaries have imposed sanctions and hardships on the Iranian people, yet accuse Iran of causing economic suffering. He also denounced recent foreign demands that Iran restrict its missile capabilities to ranges below 400 kilometers, calling such limits unacceptable infringements on national defense.

He urged media outlets to avoid speculation about the timing of conventional war, emphasizing that “the war is already ongoing” in the forms of economic sanctions, propaganda, and media assaults.