Iran Press/ Europe: The decision of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to attend the UN and request to activate the so-called trigger mechanism for the return of international sanctions against Iran met with a sharp reaction from the Russian government.
The Russian foreign ministry on Thursday 20 August issued a statement condemning Washington's request for the return of UN sanctions against Tehran, saying that Moscow considers the return of Iranian sanctions "absurd and meaningless."
Also, the Russian foreign ministry stressed that the United States has no legal or political right to request the return of UN sanctions against Iran after leaving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
China has also slammed the United States for requesting sanctions on Tehran, pointing out that it was President Donald Trump who withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal.
"We have repeatedly said that the US has already withdrawn from the JCPOA and therefore has no right to request the restoration of the UN sanctions regime against Iran", Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing.
The US administration wants to re-impose all international sanctions that had been eased under that deal.
Other nations say the US has no standing to make the demand because the Trump administration pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal two years ago.
According to the JCPOA agreement, the arms embargo on Iran was supposed to end on October 18, 2020. But the United States intends to extend the embargo.
The US plan to extend the embargo was decisively defeated in a Security Council vote last week, marking an embarrassing diplomatic rebuke to Washington.
The United States announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the "Iran nuclear deal", on 8th, May 2018.
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