US attempts to show itself as JCPOA participant bear no legal ground: envoy

Following Washington’s efforts to illegally extend arms embargo on Iran which will end in October 2020, Kazem Gharibabadi took to Twitter to cast some light on the issue.

“Para 10, UNSC Res 2231 is a reflection of para 1.2 Annex IV of the JCPOA which enumerates ‘JCPOA participants’,” he wrote.

The envoy noted that US President has already ceased participation in the deal on May 8, 2018, by announcing "... and I am today making good on my pledge to end the participation of the United States in the JCPOA.”

“The US has also ended its participation in practice, it has not participated in the meetings within the framework of the JCPoA since its unilateral withdrawal from the Deal,” Gharibabadi said, adding, “It has also violated all its commitments as a JCPoA participant and has spared no efforts to destroy it through re-imposition of sanctions and threatening others to be punished in case of trade with Iran.”

The UN arms embargo on Iran — in place since 2006/2007- will be lifted in October 2020 — five years after the JCPOA took effect.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington was considering “every possibility” to renew the ban on selling conventional arms to Iran.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” he said, adding that the US administration is urging the three European signatories to the JCPOA “to take action which is within their capacity today.”

“We'll work with the UN Security Council to extend that prohibition on those arms sales,” he continued.

US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said on Thursday that Washington had drafted a Security Council resolution on the issue and was “hopeful” the 15-member body will extend the arms embargo on Iran before it expires.

However, Russia and China, both parties to the JCPOA, are unlikely to allow that with their veto power.

To circumvent the veto, the US will argue that it legally remains a “participant state” in the nuclear deal only to invoke a “snapback” that would restore the UN sanctions, which had been in place against Iran prior to the JCPOA’s inking.

This is while the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted under the agreement.

MNA/IRN 83772974