Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the US was imposing more sanctions on Iran to support the UN Security Council sanctions that were reimposed after the UK, France, and Germany triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal, an agreement the US withdrew from back in 2018.
“Today, we are designating 44 individuals and entities involved in Iran’s nuclear program and weapons procurement networks supporting ballistic missile and military aircraft programs,” Rubio said in a statement.
The US secretary of state said the snapback sanctions were imposed due to Iran’s “significant non-performance” of its nuclear commitments, but the sanctions came just a few months after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities as part of a war that was launched amid nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
Also on Wednesday, Russia stated that it doesn’t recognize the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran, signaling that it won’t abide by the measures, which include an arms embargo.
“We do not recognize the snapback as coming into force,” said Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. “We’ll be living in two parallel realities, because for some snapback happened, for us it didn’t. That creates a problem. How we will get out of it – let’s see.”
Nebenzia said the reactivation of the sanctions is “really fraught with a major escalation around Iran, because it opens the door for those countries who want to finish Iran’s nuclear program,” referring to the potential for more US and Israeli military action against Iran.
Russia and Iran have both slammed the reimposition of the sanctions as “illegal” since the US was the party that violated the JCPOA in the first place. The European powers took the step to trigger the sanctions before the mechanism was due to expire on October 18.
