Iran’s foreign minister has rejected the idea that the United States can claim that it remains a participant in the Iranian nuclear deal in order to return sanctions against Iran back to where they were before the deal.

Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted April 27, “2 years ago, [US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo] and his boss declared 'ceasing US participation' in JCPOA, dreaming that their 'max pressure' would bring Iran to its knees. Given that policy’s abject failure, he now wants to be JCPOA participant. Stop dreaming: Iranian nation always decides its destiny.” JCPOA is the abbreviation for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. The Trump administration formally exited the deal in May 2018 and reapplied sanctions on Iran.

Zarif’s tweet was in response to a New York Times story that said Pompeo is planning on arguing that it remains a participant in the JCPOA in order to trigger what’s called a snapback provision that would bring back all the pre-2015 UN-related sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program. The snapback mechanism says a country can raise an issue of Iranian noncompliance and demand that Iran resolve it within 30 days; otherwise, UN sanctions would be reapplied. 

Currently, Iran is under US sanctions, but the threat of secondary sanctions from the US Treasury has scared off nearly all European investors from doing business with Iran.