E3 says Iran sanctions relief to continue beyond Sep. 20

On Friday, the permanent representatives of the UK, Germany, and France said in a joint letter to the 15-member UNSC that any decision or action is taken to restore the UN sanctions “would be incapable of legal effect,” Reuters reported.

“In this letter, we expressed our shared view that the purported notification under paragraph 11 of UNSCR 2231 (2015) received from the United States of America and circulated to the UN Security Council Members is incapable of having a legal effect and so cannot bring into effect the procedure foreseen under OP 11.

It flows from this that any decision and actions which would be taken based on this procedure or on its possible outcome would also be incapable of having any effect,” read part of the joint letter by the UN envoys of the three European countries, known as E3.

The announcement comes in outright rejection of the assertions by the United States that the bans will snap back then.

In 2015, Iran clinched a landmark nuclear deal with a group of countries then known as the P5+1 — US, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany. However, US President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally pulled his country out of the deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal. On August 20, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington formally triggered a 30-day process at the UNSC leading to a return of virtually all the UN sanctions on Iran on September 20.