On Saturday, September 20, Iran’s regime Supreme National Security Council announced that following the move by three European countries to reinstate UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, “in practice, the path of cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency will be suspended.”
The council’s statement did not provide further details but described the activation of the “snapback” mechanism as “reckless actions by the three European countries regarding Iran’s nuclear issue.”
The statement came one day after the UN Security Council voted against a resolution to lift sanctions on Iran. In Friday’s session, nine member states voted against a resolution presented by South Korea, the rotating president of the Security Council, which had called for lifting sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Set Conditions For Full Resumption Of IAEA Inspections
The Security Council’s rejection means that under the snapback mechanism, sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program will automatically be reinstated on September 28.
The Supreme National Security Council also announced on Friday that it had tasked the foreign ministry with continuing its consultations “to safeguard the country’s national interests” in line with the Council’s decisions.
Earlier the same day, Iran’s regime president Masoud Pezeshkian declared that European countries “cannot stop us” by activating the snapback mechanism.
In a speech, Pezeshkian referred to the rejection of the resolution to lift sanctions against Iran’s regime at the Security Council, saying: “Last night they held a session to bring back the snapback. Do they close the road? Minds and ideas are what either find a way or create one.”
He also referred to Israeli and American attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities during the 12-day war, saying: “They can hit Natanz and Fordow, but they forget that it is people who build Natanz and more important than Natanz, and they will continue to build.”
Dorothy Shea, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, said after Friday’s vote that while the United States voted against the resolution to lift sanctions on Iran, this move “does not prevent the possibility of real diplomacy” and that the reinstatement of sanctions against Iran “will not prevent their removal in the future through diplomacy.”
Meanwhile, on September 18, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview, when asked whether the return of the snapback was inevitable, that he thought it was, because “the latest news we have received from the Iranians shows that they are not serious.”
Iran’s regime is threatening to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), despite having reached an agreement in Egypt on September 9 with this UN watchdog to allow inspectors access to all of its nuclear facilities. Regime officials later declared that if UN sanctions return, Iran will consider cooperation with the Agency “terminated.”
A few days later, Rafael Grossi, Director General of the IAEA, called on Iran’s regime to implement the framework of cooperation with the Agency.
According to the latest IAEA report, Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 440 kilograms before the war.
The process of reinstating UN sanctions against Iran, known as the “snapback,” is designed to be non-vetoable within the United Nations.
This process will take effect at the end of September unless the UN Security Council agrees to halt it.
