MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2020) Moscow is satisfied that the United States' plans to restore sanctions against Iran have fallen through, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Monday.
US State Secretary Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced that all the previously scrapped UN sanctions against Iran were being reinstated after the US had triggered a 30-day snapback mechanism under Resolution 2231 in late August, despite France, Germany and the United Kingdom claiming that Washington's actions were illegal. On Sunday, Russia expressed a similar position in a letter from Ambassador to UN Vassily Nebenzia to Security Council President Abdou Abarry and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
"Right now, we are pleased to note that the US plans to activate the so-called snapback, i.e. essentially restore the anti-Iran sanctions, have completely failed. We welcome the unified stance of the Security Council members, their overwhelming majority, which is in line with ours," Ryabkov told journalists.
In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and the European Union. It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the arms embargo five years after the deal's adoption. In 2018, the United States abandoned its conciliatory stance on Iran, withdrawing from the JCPOA and implementing hard-line policies against Tehran.
Earlier this year, the US tried to campaign for the restoration of international sanctions on Iran, specifically, an extension to the arms embargo, but all of its draft resolutions ended up being rejected.
