TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the United States is aware that it cannot trigger the snapback mechanism which returns international sanctions against Iran at the United Nations.

“The United States’ snapback (claim) is illegal and unacceptable. They know that they cannot use the snapback,” Zarif said as he introduced the new Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Zarif says former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton “was so overjoyed to have ruined the JCPOA” that he triumphantly boasted during a press conference at the White House that “we are no longer a member of JCPOA to use the snapback mechanism.”He added, “We should not assume that they are right if they say something out loud and repeat it.”

Zarif said former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton “was so overjoyed to have ruined the JCPOA” that he triumphantly boasted during a press conference at the White House that “we are no longer a member of JCPOA to use the snapback mechanism.”

Shortly before Trump announced plans to withdraw from the pact, Bolton suggested to reporters that the U.S. would not turn to the UN Security Council to remake the nuclear accord because “we’re out of the deal,” Foreign Policy reported in May 2018.

“At this time, there’s no plan to go up to New York” to push for a snapback of sanctions, a senior State Department official explains. “The United States is out of the deal … so we’re not going to use a provision as if we were still a participant in the deal to invoke the snapback.”

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that he intends to move next week to trigger the snapback mechanism. Trump made such a promise one day after the UN Security Council resoundingly rejected a draft resolution by the U.S. to extend arms embargo against Iran. Out of 15 countries sitting on the Council, only the Dominican Republic backed the U.S. resolution.

The U.S. has repeatedly claimed it will invoke the “snapback” mechanism within the Security Council should its draft resolution on arms embargo fail to pass.

NA/PA