TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani has congratulated the Iranian people on the imminent defeat of the United States to trigger the so-called snapback sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“In advance, I congratulate the Iranian nation on the upcoming Saturday and Sunday victory [of Iran] and the U.S. humiliating defeat,” Rouhani said during a cabinet session on Wednesday morning.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

“The lonely, infamous America is seeking to please itself on Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “How can the U.S., which was not able to trigger [the snapback mechanism], claim that it has succeeded?”The United States has for months insisted that it has the legal right to reimpose the UN sanctions on Iran even though the U.S. has abandoned the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to New York to notify the UN Security Council of Iran’s “significant non-performance” of the nuclear deal as defined in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

All JCPOA participants, along with 13 members of the 15-member UN Security Council, rejected the U.S. notification. They said that the U.S. had no legal authority to trigger the snapback process because it has withdrawn from the JCPOA.

The U.S., however, says it looks forward to restoring the international sanctions on Iran by September 20, which marks the end of the 30-day period that it activated the process of restoring the UN sanctions on Iran.

“They have come to experience the next defeat,” Rouhani said. “They wanted to use the snapback mechanism but all the world knows that the snapback mechanism is for those who are members of Barjam (JCPOA).”

This is a one-month process which fortunately the U.S. was not able to trigger it, he explained.

“The U.S. wants to orchestrate a plot against the Iranian nation and it cannot take one step forward,” he added.

The president said members of the UN Security Council, the three European countries (E3), as well as China and Russia, have opposed the U.S. move and eventually the U.S. became isolated.

“The lonely, infamous America is seeking to please itself on Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “How can the U.S., which was not able to trigger [the snapback mechanism], claim that it has succeeded?”

Rouhani added that with the exception of the Zionist regime and a few small countries which have clung to the White House, the Americans are all alone in the world.

The U.S. attempt to invoke the snapback of sanctions against Iran came a week after its efforts to extend the UN arms embargo on Tehran failed miserably. 

Only the Dominican Republic joined Washington in voting yes.

Under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the arms embargo against the Islamic Republic will end on October 18.

MH/PA