US will never see return of ‘non-existent’ anti-Iran resolutions: Envoy

“US will never see the return of terminated resolutions for— int’l law—they are non-existent,” Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in a Monday tweet.

He pointed to the fresh sanctions imposed by the US administration against Iran earlier in the day, and said “the US decision today to impose sanctions on Iran has no practical effect; rather, it is a clear sign of desperation after its recent failures at UN which only added to US’ isolation.”

The Trump administration on Monday named 27 individuals and entities, including officials at the Iranian ministry of defense, nuclear scientists, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and anyone found trading in conventional weapons with Iran.

The Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, appearing with Pompeo, also announced separate sanctions on the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, including three deputy directors, and against five named nuclear scientists accused of seeking to steal nuclear secrets from the west.

Announcing the sanctions, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed the UK, France and Germany would be required not just to comply with the sanctions, but to enforce them.

But the UN has asserted that the decision is not up to Washington, and the European powers have warned that the US does not have the legal power to do so.

Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the sanctions relief provided by the world body for Iran – agreed under the 2015 nuclear deal – will continue beyond September 20 in outright rejection of assertions by the United States that the bans will snap back then.

In 2015, Iran clinched a landmark nuclear deal with a group of countries then known as the P5+1 — US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany.

However, US President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally pulled his country out of the deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal.

On August 20, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington formally triggered a 30-day process at the UNSC leading to a return of virtually all the UN sanctions on Iran on September 20. He cited what he claimed to be Iranian violations of the JCPOA, to which the US is no longer a party. However, no one took the US remarks about the return of anti-Iran resolutions with the aim of changing the ruling system there,

On Friday, the permanent representatives of the UK, Germany and France said in a joint letter to the 15-member UNSC that any decision or action taken to restore the UN sanctions “would be incapable of legal effect.”

Not possible for US to reinstate Iran bans: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday the US “does not understand” it is not possible to reinstate Iran sanctions.

Speaking to Saudi-funded TV channel Al-Arabiya, Lavrov stressed that Washington has already left the deal and is not a party to the JCPOA anymore.

He said it is not possible to reinstate the UN Security Council resolutions against Iran.
“It is obvious to everyone against for the US.