Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has criticized the United States and three European nations for attempting to leverage the snapback mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal to reimpose expired United Nations sanctions against Tehran.
Araghchi’s remarks came during a meeting on Monday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, where he called the reactivation of sanctions “an unprecedented blow to diplomacy” and indicative of a lack of goodwill from the involved nations.
The Iranian foreign minister condemned the actions of the US and the European powers, saying “they are unjustified and illegal.”
He emphasized that all restrictions against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, established under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, were set to expire on October 18.
On September 19, the 15-member Security Council failed to adopt a resolution that would have prevented the re-imposition of UN sanctions on Iran after the E3 triggered the “snapback” mechanism and accused Tehran of failing to comply with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
A subsequent resolution, which sought to grant a six-month extension to both the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, also failed to pass at the Security Council on Friday.
The Council restored the bans on Sunday at 0000 GMT. They will again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with the Islamic Republic and target the country’s defensive missile program.
Last month, the E3 invoked the so-called snapback mechanism, a 30-day process to restore all anti-Iran sanctions.
Iran rejected the move as illegitimate, citing the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA and the European trio’s decision to align with unlawful sanctions rather than fulfilling their JCPOA obligations.
