The Jerusalem Post
The US wants to use “snapback sanctions” to deter Iran from enriching weapons-grade uranium – a mechanism that was meant to be used in response to any violation of the 2015 nuclear deal.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Israelis that he saw snapback sanctions as a possible way to stop Iran from enriching uranium to 90% purity, an Israeli diplomatic source said, confirming a report in Walla News.
Snapback was a UN Security Council resolution passed in tandem with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal with Iran, which stated that any party to the deal can trigger UN Security Council sanctions – which are binding on all member states - if Tehran violates the agreement in any way. That agreement limited Iran’s uranium enrichment to 5%, but the Islamic Republic has enriched it to 60% in the past year, among other JCPOA violations.
The US under former president Donald Trump left the Iran deal in 2018 but asked the UNSC to snap back sanctions in 2020 due to Iranian violations. The other members of the UNSC voted that the US did not have the authority to do so, because it had abandoned the JCPOA.
