Pompeo Intends To Enforce Renewed UN Sanctions on Iran, Even If No One Else Does

Aug. 21, 2020 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apparently believes that the mere submission of a letter to the UN Security Council, as he did yesterday, means that the UN sanctions on Iran will automatically be back in place in 30 days, and therefore, they will be enforced. When asked by a reporter if the U.S. would sanction Russia and China should they ignore the U.S. position that the UN sanctions have been snapped back, he said, ominously: “When the U.S. sanctions were violated, we enforced them. When UN sanctions are violated, we’re going to do everything we can to enforce them as well.”

In response to another question, Pompeo argued that the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not a treaty, but just a political agreement among the leaders of the nations at the time it was negotiated. “The commitments that each entered into were mutual,” he said. “The Iranians are not in compliance with the political commitments that they made, today, and President Rouhani says that the E3 [three European signers, Germany, France and U.K.] is not in compliance either.” But everybody knows that Iran is not in compliance, in response to the U.S. not being in compliance. “Those are a set of political agreements,” he said. “Those are far and separate and apart from UN Security Council Resolution 2231. UN Security Council Resolution 2231 is very plain. It says this set of states has the right to execute snapback.” A reading of the resolution, however, shows that the text of the JCPOA is fully incorporated into the resolution, making it a matter of international law, a point which Pompeo appears to be fully intent on ignoring.