File photo of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a UNSC meeting PHOTO: By REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sent a formal request to the UN Security Council to ‘snap back’ sanctions against Iran, claiming Tehran violated the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington has unilaterally ditched.

Iran Press/America: The letter reportedly accuses Iran of “significant non-compliance” with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 arrangement negotiated with Tehran by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany. 

The deal was codified by the UNSC Resolution 2231, which the US is now citing as grounds for invoking the “snapback” provision, even though the Trump administration unilaterally left the JCPOA in 2018.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has denounced the US attempt to reimpose the sanctions as “illegitimate and felonious.”

While the resolution and the JCPOA allow for any member to invoke the “snapback” in case it deemed Iran noncompliant, other members of the Security Council have pointed out that the US can’t have it both ways.

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