Saturday, 05 September 2020_The Chinese ambassador to Tehran has stressed the US ineligibility to trigger the so-called snapback provision in the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at re-imposing UN sanctions against Iran, describing the fact as a “common belief.”
“It is the common belief that US cannot initiate the process of reinstating UN sanctions under #UNSCR2231,” Chang Hua said in a post on his twitter account on Wednesday, referring to the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrined the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
On August 22, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo filed an official complaint with UNSC President Dian Triansyah Djani, accusing Iran of violating the JCPOA – from which US President Donald Trump withdrew two years ago.
He claimed that Washington is still a participant in the JCPOA and therefore retains the right to activate a 30-day countdown to a return of all UN sanctions that had been imposed on Tehran before the nuclear agreement.
However, the remaining signatories to the JCPOA maintained that since the United States left the accord in May 2018, it has no right to act under its provisions.
In a meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA, which took place in Vienna on Tuesday, all participants reaffirmed in a statement the importance of preserving the agreement, emphasizing that the US cannot invoke the “snapback” mechanism.