Iran (IMNA) - Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, emphasized during his visit to the UN headquarters in New York that any attempt to activate this mechanism would be completely illegal. He underscored that the JCPOA has not been implemented for seven years and that European countries ceased fulfilling their commitments after the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018. Therefore, from Iran’s perspective, the snapback process has no legal standing, as the European parties have no grounds to claim non-compliance by Iran when they themselves failed to comply.
Gharibabadi highlighted that Tehran has already warned the European parties about the consequences of attempting to invoke the snapback and will continue diplomatic talks on July 25 in Istanbul to seek common solutions to manage the current situation. He also discussed the efforts by the three European countries to push the snapback mechanism, calling these attempts “desperate” and illegitimate. Furthermore, he raised concerns about US and Israeli actions against Iran, criticizing the “deceptive tactics” and misinformation presented in various UN Security Council sessions.
The snapback mechanism, embedded in the 2015 nuclear deal, allows any participant state to trigger the automatic reimposition of UN sanctions if Iran is found to be in significant non-compliance. However, Iran contends that the European parties are themselves in breach of the agreement, especially by failing to lift sanctions as promised and imposing further restrictions, thus disqualifying them from initiating snapback.
Gharibabadi’s diplomatic activities at the UN included discussions with multiple delegations, including the “Friends of the UN Charter” group, where he presented Iran’s stance and emphasized the illegality of the snapback move. Iran’s position remains firm that snapback would only complicate the nuclear standoff and that responsibility for escalations lies with the Western parties.
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