US returns UN sanctions on Iran despite objections

The United States has unilaterally restored all UN sanctions against Iran, despite opposition from Washington's closest European allies and uncertainty about their influence.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on 19 September the so-called turning back of UN sanctions on Iran.

“If UN member states fail to meet their obligations to implement these sanctions, the United States is willing to use our internal authorities to impose consequences for those failures and ensure Iran does not reap the benefits of banned activity by the UN”, Pompeo said in a statement.

“In the coming days, the United States will announce a series of additional measures to strengthen the implementation of UN sanctions and to call for offenders,” he added.

The US move paves the way for a major clash in the United Nations, where Washington finds itself increasingly isolated amid tensions with Iran and other parties of the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint General Action Plan (JCPOA).

America's “act as a bully and impose sanctions... The world community must decide how to act on harassment,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian state television several hours before the announcement.

President Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Action Plan in 2018 and again imposed US sanctions on Iran, causing Tehran to progressively violate its nuclear commitments.

The remaining parties in Iran's nuclear deal have tried to stave off the deal, rejecting Washington's bid to trigger a return to UN sanctions on Tehran for violating its nuclear commitments.