US Claims UN Sanctions on Iran Reinstated: The World Disagrees

UN refused to move on 'snapback sanctions' at US demand

On Sunday, the United States reiterated that “snapback sanctions” against Iran are back in place at the United Nations, and that all nations are compelled to obey them. They say that the US was allowed to unilaterally do this under the P5+1 nuclear deal.

The problem is that the United States is virtually the only nation that thinks so. With the US no longer part of the P5+1 deal, every other party to that deal said the US doesn’t get to make that decision. When the US pushed the matter at the UN Security Council, they refused to act, citing virtual unanimity that the US was wrong in this action. The US argued they didn’t need a vote, but if there had been one, they’d have lost decisively.

For everyone else, Sunday is just another day. The US not only insists the sanctions are real, but has threatened to try to enforce the sanctions unilaterally, world-wide, by themselves. The Trump Administration is planning a series of new threats to try to scare nations into compliance.

This is part of a series of confrontations between the US and the international community over Iran. The US also pushed for Iran’s arms embargo to be extended beyond October, and that vote at the UN General Assembly was an overwhelming defeat. Here too the lack of reality at the UN is not going to stop the US from trying to enforce international law as they wish it existed.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.