TEHRAN – The European troika (the United Kingdom, Germany and France) has rejected the United States’ attempt to trigger snapback mechanism and restore all the UN sanctions against Iran.

The German Foreign Ministry said in a tweet on Thursday that the European countries remain committed to preserving the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA, “but Iran urgently needs to return to full compliance.” 

The tweet came following a meeting of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas with his UK and French counterparts, Dominic Raab and Jean-Yves Le Drian.  Foreign Secretary Raab hosted the meeting. 

According to the German Foreign Ministry, the three top diplomats met to coordinate joint steps for preserving the JCPOA. EU High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell also took part in the talks via a video linkup, according to TASS.

Nearly a week after the UN Security Council rejected a U.S. draft resolution to extend arms embargo against Iran in violation of Resolution 2231, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on August 20 that all UN sanctions against Iran will be reinstated on September 20 after the U.S. “activated the snapback mechanism”. 

However, the move was strongly denounced by other signatories of the nuclear deal including Iran, E3/EU, Russia, China, and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The U.S., which was left isolated at the UN Security Council  when it said it wished to reimpose snapback sanctions, called the E3 position as crackers and pandering to terrorists.

The European nations argue that the U.S. was no longer a participant in the deal and so unable to act unilaterally. 

The U.S. left the deal in May 2018 and imposed sanctions on Iran.

Niger, the president of the UN Security Council for September, has reaffirmed a rejection of a U.S. complaint against Iran at the Security Council.

Chinese Mission to the UN said in a tweet on September 2 that the United States cannot initiate process of reinstating UN sanctions on Iran.

“A fruitful meeting of #JCPOA Joint Commission at a critical juncture. All participants reaffirmed the importance of preserving the agreement and its full implementation. It is the common belief that US cannot initiate the process of reinstating UN sanctions under #UNSCR2231,” said the tweet.

The participants to the Joint Commission of the JCPOA met in Vienna on September 1.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, has said that the United States has no chance to trigger the snapback mechanism.

“Almost, all the member states to the Security Council have announced clearly that the United States cannot be considered a participant to the JCPOA,” he told IRNA in an interview published on Monday.

Ulyanov added that the U.S. is trying to say that the snapback mechanism has been launched and that it can announce on September 20 that all sanctions can be returned.

However, it is only the interpretation of the U.S., the Russian diplomat remarked.

NA/PA