To Pressure Iran, Pompeo Turns to the Deal Trump Renounced
To Pressure Iran, Pompeo Turns to the Deal Trump Renounced
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/world/middleeast/us-iran-nuclear-deal-pompeo.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Politics
The secretary of state is preparing an argument that the U.S. remains a participant in the Obama-era nuclear deal, with the goal of extending an arms embargo or destroying the accord.
“We are prepared to exercise all of our diplomatic options to ensure the arms embargo stays in place at the U.N. Security Council,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
By David E. Sanger
Published April 26, 2020
Updated April 27, 2020, 10:17 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON —
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In an effort to force the issue, Mr. Pompeo has approved a plan, bound to be opposed by many of Washington’s European allies, under which the United States would, in essence, claim it legally remains a “participant state” in the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump has denounced — but only for the purposes of invoking a “snapback” that would restore the U.N. sanctions on Iran that were in place before the accord.
If the arms embargo is not renewed, the United States would exercise that right as an original member of the agreement. That step would force a restoration of the wide array of the sanctions that prohibited oil sales and banking arrangements before the adoption of the agreement in 2015. Enforcing those older sanctions would, in theory, be binding on all members of the United Nations.
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Iran’s first reaction to news of the American effort came Monday morning in a tweet from the country’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. He wrote that Mr. Pompeo “and his boss declared ‘CEASING US participation’ ’’ in the accord, citing the language of the White House announcement in May 2018.
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The timing is critical for Iran, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus. A month ago, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, wrote to the world’s largest economic powers and urged a lifting of economic sanctions on Iran, along with Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and Zimbabwe. “I am encouraging the waiving of sanctions imposed on countries to ensure access to food, essential health supplies, and Covid-19 medical support,” he wrote. “This is the time for solidarity not exclusion.”
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They may hate Barack Husein Obama, but they just can not do work hr did first, no matter how it chips their noodles. Hating Barrack go them into this mishemas and now they're trying to use Barrack to get them out of it. Ouch! Does that have to sting!