U.S. will trigger 'snapback' mechanism to reimpose Iran sanctions

Foreign Policy

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with several key UN figures on Thursday to inform them of the demand issued by President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would travel to New York on Thursday to meet with several key UN figures to inform them of the demand issued by Trump. | Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool Photo via AP, File

By Caitlin Oprysko

08/19/2020 07:54 PM EDT

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President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he would demand that the United Nations reimpose all of the body’s sanctions on Iran, triggering a so-called snapback mechanism that could end the nuclear deal that he withdrew from in 2018.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would travel to New York on Thursday to meet with several key UN figures to inform them of the demand issued by Trump.

“I’ll meet with the Security Council president, and then the secretary general will provide notification of the snapback and then 30 days from now, all the sanctions that were in place will resume,” Pompeo said in an interview on Fox News.

“They have been temporarily paused because of the ridiculous nuclear deal, and the world will be a safer place.”

The move willset the stage for a potentially contentious showdown with the UN Security Council, where the U.S. has veto power, over reimposing the sanctions that were eased as part of the 2015 agreement with Iran as well as Germany, Britain, France, China and Russia.

Other countries involved in the deal contend that the United States has no standing to trigger the snapback because Trump withdrew from the deal two years ago. The Trump administration asserts that the language in the Security Council resolution enshrining the agreement allows for the move by the White House.

The result could be a nuclear deal that the United States says is dead but that other countries say is alive.

The U.S. has already reimposed its own punishing sanctions on Iran, including on non-American entities that do business with Tehran — leading to increased tensions that hit a fever pitch earlier this year. As a result, Iran has begun taking steps that violate certain terms of the deal, such as resuming uranium-enrichment-related work at a key nuclear site.

Trump’s decision to trigger the snapback mechanism was expected in the wake of a rejected U.S. effort at the UN last week to extend an arms embargo on Iran that was set to expire in October as part of the nuclear deal.

Trump has repeatedly vowed to scrap the initial nuclear deal, which was negotiated by the Obama administration. Trump on Wednesday called it a “total disaster,” and pledged, as he has before, to replace it with a better deal.

“If and when I win the election, within the first month Iran will come to us and they are going to be asking for a deal so quickly because they are doing very poorly,” he asserted to reporters Wednesday, urging them to “Mark it down: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.

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