“Snapback” Triggered But Failed to Operate

The surprise which had been promised by President Hassan Rouhani regarding the White House failure in triggering the snapback mechanism and its ineffectiveness came true on Sunday, September 20.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

After one month of media ballyhoo of senior officials of the White House regarding the return of the UN sanctions (stipulated in the UN Resolution 2231) against Iran, the UN was to announce its stand in a meeting but with involvement of European troika in the snapback mechanism which has been mentioned in the JCPOA, the mechanism was not activated due to official pullout of the U.S. from the JCPOA.

In order to frighten Iran, the U.S. dispatched its aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) with over 5,000 navies and troops to the Persian Gulf and trumpeted that the carrier has passed the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Persian Gulf in order to squeeze the throat of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz after activating the snapback mechanism but it did not happen.

Meanwhile at the same time U.S. President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in recent days had tried to pave the ground for the return of sanctions through resorting to the intimidation but this time the U.S. was left more isolated than ever, and beside Russia and China, other Western states did not heed its order and refrained following it because UK, France and Germany on September 19 by sending a letter to the UNSC once again reiterated their own stand of defending the JCPOA, and announced that the UN embargos against Iran which had been suspended after signing the nuclear deal, JCPOA, in 2015 would not return  despite the U.S. insistence.

According to the Russian news agency Sputnik, the European troika wrote a joint letter to the head of the UNSC where they stipulated, “Any decision or action regarding the return of the UN sanctions and reimposition of the U.S. sanctions after its pullout of the JCPOA in 2018 is incapable of having legal effect.”

The phrase of “incapable of having legal effect” noted in the letter was both almost a humiliation to the U.S. and also an indication to the deep rift in the Wester camp’s stand with the U.S. In this letter, it has also been pointed to the previous UN Resolutions against Iran and it has been emphasized, “Our view was widely shared in the Council, which was reflected by the President of the Security Council in this conclusions of 25^th of August.” The letter concludes, “The E3 remains committed to the fully implementing UNSCR 2231 (2015) by which the JCPOA was endorsed in 2015. We have worked tirelessly to preserve the nuclear agreement and remain committed to do so.”

Although the U.S. Department of State by issuing a statement has claimed it has activated the snapback mechanism and they believe that the world will follow this system but the UN and European diplomats have different views.

According to the French news agency, AFP, a European diplomat on Saturday and regarding the activating the return of international sanctions against Iran said, “Americans will pretend they have activated the snapback mechanism and sanctions will return and come into effect. But this action has no legal basis, and as the result it can have no legal consequence.” A UN diplomat also said, “I don’t see anything happening. It would be just a statement. It’s like pulling a trigger and no bullet coming out.”

To complete this theory that the snapback mechanism does not function, Russian officials have recently warned that the U.S. unilateralism against Iran would lead to the disgrace of the UNSC.

What is observed in the U.S. behavior is that the U.S. in the emotional condition of the White House is trying to provide grounds to compensate President Trump’s previous failures on the eve of the presidential election as he is in dire need of a success but fortunately, the world is not with him and any stone he has thrown has missed the target.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian