(JTA) — President Donald Trump has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to call on the United Nations to impose “snapback sanctions” on Iran for violations of the nuclear deal with world powers.
The United States left the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. The agreement allows for sanctions to be reimposed if Iran violates the agreement.
One year ago, Iran breached the uranium enrichment limit set by the nuclear deal. In January it announced that it had enriched enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb.
Trump’s order comes days after the U.N. Security Council voted against a U.S.-drafted resolution to extend the international arms embargo on Iran. The embargo is set to expire in October as part of the nuclear deal. It is not clear, however, whether the U.S. can reactivate the sanctions since it is no longer a partner to the agreement.
Pompeo traveled to New York on Thursday to hand-deliver the request to Dian Triansyah Djani, the Indonesian ambassador who currently is president of the U.N. Security Council.
On Wednesday, Pompeo had told reporters that the request would be a “fully valid, enforceable UN Security Council resolution,” and that “We have every expectation that they’ll be enforced just like every other UN Security Council resolution that is in place.”
This week, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner said in an interview with Voice of America that the United States is willing to enter peace negotiations with Iran if Trump is reelected in November.
“If there is a real deal where nuclear weapons are off the table, and we can make sure that it leads to a more prosperous Middle East, then I believe President Trump would sit and have discussions about it,” said Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
