MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Moscow denounced the attempt by the United Kingdom, France and Germany to trigger a mechanism to reinstate the United Nations' sanctions on Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stated that on August 28, the British, French and German foreign ministers had sent a message to the UN secretary general and the chair of the UN Security Council, alleging that Tehran had been in significant non-compliance with its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program.
"The message is presented as a notification provided for in paragraph 11 of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which triggers a sequence of steps to reinstate the UN sanctions on Iran that were lifted quite a while ago. In reality, it cannot be seen as such. We strongly condemn these activities by the European countries and call on the international community to reject them. This kind of manipulation cannot entail any liabilities for other countries," the statement reads.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, such actions by the European parties to the JCPOA are nothing but "a brazen attempt to manipulate the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2231." "Taking advantage of the fact that the mechanism the resolution provides for - called the snapback - involves a unique and quite a complicated procedure, unprecedented in world practice, the British and the other two European nations are arrogating to themselves the right to interpret its implementation the way they seem fit," the statement notes. "However, the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 are based on a careful balance of interests and without it, they will stop working," the ministry added.
