The US has officially begun activating the "trigger mechanism"

The US Secretary of State presented Washington's request to the Security Council to reinstate all international sanctions against Iran. The US claims that the Islamic Republic has violated its obligations under the nuclear deal and the JCPOA.

As announced, Mike Pompeo attended the UN headquarters on Thursday afternoon, New York time, and presented the US request to activate the trigger mechanism against the Islamic Republic to the rotating president of the Security Council.

This mechanism is intended to resolve disputes between countries participating in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and its activation could lead to the automatic return of all Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iran.

On Friday, August 21, the German news agency reported that the disagreement over how to deal with the Islamic Republic has created a huge rift between the United States and its European allies, and the prospects for resolving this dispute are unclear.

The trigger mechanism is a mechanism envisaged in Security Council Resolution 2231. This resolution was passed in 2015 after the signing of the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers, and the JCPOA is an annex to it.

Based on this mechanism, countries participating in the JCPOA can request the automatic reinstatement of international sanctions resolutions against the Islamic Republic if Iran fails to comply with its commitments.

The United States ended its participation in the JCPOA by withdrawing from the nuclear deal in May 2018. For this reason, the five remaining countries in the agreement, including the three European countries of France, Britain, and Germany, believe that the United States does not have the ability to activate the trigger mechanism.

Three European countries oppose US action

The foreign ministers of the three European countries issued a joint statement saying that the US action contradicts their efforts to preserve the nuclear deal and that for this reason they cannot support it.

According to Reuters, Heiko Maas, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and Dominic Raab have emphasized adherence to the JCPOA and called on the Islamic Republic to fully implement its JCPOA commitments.

On the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran reduced its implementation of its JCPOA commitments in five stages. For this reason, among other reasons, the US has accused the Islamic Republic of violating the JCPOA and demanded the activation of the trigger mechanism.

In response to the opposition of three European countries to the US attempt to activate the trigger mechanism, Mike Pompeo accused these countries of "biasing the ayatollahs."

Since Donald Trump entered the White House, the dispute between the United States and European countries over the nuclear agreement has increased and has now reached one of its highest points.

Since the 2016 election campaign, Trump has repeatedly called the nuclear deal the worst deal in history and believes that the agreement will not permanently prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, nor will it end the country's actions to destabilize the region and its controversial missile programs.

The US request to activate the trigger mechanism has been put on the agenda after Washington's proposed resolution to extend the arms embargo on Iran was rejected by the Security Council.

According to Resolution 2231, the arms embargo on Iran is set to expire in October of this year. Some senior officials in the Islamic Republic have threatened that extending the arms embargo would mean the eternal death of the JCPOA.

European countries' request to Iran

The three European countries that are parties to the nuclear deal, while opposing the US action, have confirmed that Iran has "systematically" violated its commitments under the deal, but they emphasize that this problem must be resolved through dialogue.

France, Britain, and Germany have called on the Islamic Republic to "as soon as possible" stop all actions that contradict JCPOA commitments and return to full implementation of its obligations.

Indonesia holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, and the US request to activate the trigger mechanism has been submitted to the country's ambassador to the UN.

It is not yet clear how the Security Council will respond to the US request. Given the abstention of 11 Security Council members on the US resolution last week, some observers consider the US request to be silenced as a possibility.

On Thursday, in a detailed letter addressed to the rotating president of the Security Council, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, called the US request to activate the trigger mechanism and return the sanctions resolutions against Iran "lacking any validity or legitimacy" and called for the request to be rejected.

Source: DW