TEHRAN – Former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Mohsen Lezaei has revealed that US President Donald Trump personally called European leaders just 24 hours before the important UN Security Council vote, instructing him not to support a resolution that blocked the repositioning of sanctions in Iran.
Rezaei made these remarks at a ceremony on Tuesday honoring Iranian war martyrs, denounced recent European actions as part of an unlawful economic war against Iran, and was made without international legal justification.
The background to this intervention has been concentrated on the so-called “snapback” mechanisms caused by E3 countries last month (France, Germany and the UK). The snapback process will allow for the automatic recovery of UN sanctions against Iran if Tehran is not in compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA). E3 denounced Tehran for violations and sought to restore all UN sanctions suspended under resolution 2231.
According to Rezaei, the European powers initially indicated that they would reject the proposed second resolution to delay the execution of sanctions. Chinese and Russian diplomats have shown that Europeans do not oppose the resolution at the UN Security Council. However, Trump’s direct call changed this course, leading to a failed resolution.
Iran vehemently rejected the snapback move as illegal, citing the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the US JCPOA in 2018, accusing the European trio of violating the JCPOA’s commitment in line with illegal sanctions instead of pursuing diplomatic involvement.
At a memorial ceremony held at the Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare, attended by Mar faculty families, Rezai commemorated the eight years of victims of the Iran-Iraq war.
In response to decades of economic pressure on Iran, Rezai pointed out that foreign enemies accused Iran of imposing sanctions and difficulties on Iranian people, but causing economic distress. He also denounces recent foreign demands that Iran limit missile capabilities to less than 400 kilometres, calling such restrictions an unacceptable violation of national defense.
He urged the media to avoid speculation about the timing of traditional wars, highlighting that “the war is already underway.”