Irans President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on September 16, 2020. (Photo by president.ir)
Irans President Hassan Rouhani says the United States has suffered a "humiliating defeat" in its push to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism, saying this weekend - the date when Washington claims the UN sanctions will be reinstated against Tehran - will mark a victory for the Iranian nation.
Rouhani made the remarks during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday as the 30-day countdown for a return of UN restrictive measures that the US claims to have activated against Iran will end over the weekend.
"Saturday and Sunday are the days of the Iranian nations victory and Americas humiliating defeat," the president said. "I congratulate the Iranian nation in advance on its great and historic victory in defeating Americas attempts to trigger the snap-back mechanism."
On August 20, the US formally notified the United Nations of Washingtons demand for all UN sanctions on Iran to be restored, citing what he claimed to be Iranian violations of the 2015 nuclear deal.
However, the remaining signatories to the deal - named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - maintained that Washington could not initiate the mechanism because it had already left the accord in May 2018.
"The whole world knows that the snapback mechanism belongs to the JCPOA members. The one who has considered the JCPOA to be treasonous, named it the ‘worst deal ever, withdrawn from it, heaped scorn on it, encouraged others to pull out of it and stood against the Security Council Resolution (2231), is not qualified for this job," Rouhani said, referring to the resolution that enshrined the nuclear deal.
Activating the snapback mechanism "is a one-month process, which fortunately the United States could not even start. It is one of Irans historical victories and successes. America wants to conspire against the Iranian people but cannot even take a single step," he added.
The Iranian chief executive also stressed that Security Council members as well as the European signatories to the JCPOA besides Russia and China have all opposed the US push to invoke the snapback mechanism.
Washington wanted to portray this weekend as a victory for itself, but it could not "even get a [Security Council] member onboard and take a step to start [the mechanism], so how would it succeed?" the president exclaimed.
On Arab deals with Israel
Elsewhere, the president touched on the US-brokered normalization deals Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, saying the regimes that reach out to Tel Aviv are responsible for the grave consequences of their actions.
"Unfortunately, there are some countries in the region whose people are Muslim and religious but their rulers do not understand religion. They neither comprehend and implement the rules of religion nor care about what they owe the Palestinian nation," he said.
He slammed the Arab regimes for reaching out to Israel and offering it a foothold in the region at a time when the regime is committing increasing crimes against Palestinians.
"All the grave consequences in this regard rely on the states that do these works in violation of the regional security regulations," he noted.
SOURCE: PRESS TV
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/20280
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