Iran urges JCPOA parties to block US efforts to use UNSC as tool for own sake

“We hope that our partners in the JCPOA (the nuclear deal officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) as well as all permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council will show that they will not allow the United States to make, through intimidation, an instrumental use of the UN Security Council and violate the international law,” the spokesperson told IRIB on Wednesday.

The remarks came after the US suffered another debasing defeat at the UN Security Council to clinch support even from its allies to trigger the return of all UNSC sanctions against Iran.

The president of the UNSC said during a council meeting on Middle East on Tuesday that the 15-member body was “not in position to take further action” on the bid by the United States to trigger “snapback” sanctions against Iran due to a lack of consensus among members.

The US had gone to great lengths to rally support for its anti-Iran move.

However, 13 UNSC members expressed their opposition to the US bid on Friday, arguing the move is void as the Donald Trump administration had already quit the deal in 2018 and was no more a signatory to the landmark accord, which was signed between Iran and world powers.

This comes as the US says it has the legal right to trigger the “snapback” process enshrined in the JCPOA, even though Trump had pulled out of the nuclear deal, arguing UNSC Resolution 2231 that endorses the agreement names Washington as a participant.

The US also suffered another resounding defeat after on August 14 the UNSC almost unanimously rejected a US bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran beyond its expiration in October.

“It may be the first time in the history of the Security Council that in less than ten days a permanent member of the Security Council has faced a ‘big no’,” the Iranian spokesperson said.

Khatibzadeh added that for the first time, the president of the Security Council has officially stated that the United States has essentially no capacity to circulate such declarations among its members, noting, “The statement by the president of the Security Council that the US request is void and invalid bears many legal consequences.”

He said that the US was totally enraged as even its European allies did not support its move, prompting the US ambassador to attack them at the meeting.

The move by the UNSC president drew an angry rebuke from the US ambassador to the UN.

“Let me just make it really, really clear: the Trump administration has no fear in standing in limited company on this matter,” Kelly Craft hit back after Djani spoke, adding “I only regret that other members of this council have lost their way and now find themselves standing in the company of terrorists.”

In addition to Russia and China, the US’ European allies, namely Britain, France and Germany, were all united in declaring the US action ineffective on grounds that a party could not withdraw from a deal and then use the resolution that endorsed it to reimpose sanctions.

French deputy UN ambassador Anne Gueguen said 13 of the 15 council members, including the three European nations still party to the JCPOA, agree the US is no longer part of the deal and therefore its notification of “snap back” has no effect.

She said the trio are willing to work with council members, including the other JCPOA participants, Russia and China, “to seek a realistic path forward that could secure the support of the council.”

‘Iranian nation’s resistance led to US defeat vis-à-vis our diplomats’

Also on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting that the nation’s resistance defeated the United States before Iranian diplomats, adding, “The fact that the United States suffers back-to-back defeats in the Security Council … is due to the nation’s resistance and endurance.”

“The people resisted despite all the pressures and hardships. The people endured hardships in their lives, but did not surrender to the enemy. They wanted to bring us to the point of collapse and said that you will not last until the end of winter,” but they failed in their bid, Rouhani added.