US Special Envoy Abrams Says He Expects All UN Sanctions On Iran To Be Reinstated Saturday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2020) The United States expects that almost all United Nations sanctions against Iran will be automatically reinstated on September 19, US Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams told reporters on Wednesday.

"Virtually all UN sanctions on Iran will come back and be in place this weekend - at 8:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, the 19th," Abrams said. "The arms embargo will not be re-imposed indefinitely and other restrictions will return, including the ban on Iran engaging in enrichment and reprocessing related activities, the prohibition on ballistic missiles testing and development and sanctions on the transfer of nuclear and missile related technologies to Iran."

Abrams added that the United States expects all UN member states to implement the sanctions fully as well as respect the process and obligations to uphold them.

On August 20, US Secretary Mike Pompeo sent a letter to the UN Security Council, requesting that the nuclear agreement's snapback sanctions mechanism be invoked. Abrams said that this notification is sufficient and the procedure doesn't require any more steps on the part of the US.

The majority of the UN Security Council members, including all other permanent ones, Russia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, see the US move legally void since the country unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018.

Abrams said that over the weekend and next Monday the State Department will issue statements "as to how exactly we are planning to enforce these returned UN sanctions." He expressed certainty that "individual actors will regard sanctions back in effect" out of fear of American reprisals regardless of their countries' official position.