Thread by @RezaNasri1

#THREAD

.@USAmbUN has sent to #UNSC president @indonesiaunny a letter explaining the US legal position regarding the so-called right to "snapback". The US main argument in that letter is so ludicrous it's not even funny anymore! 👇👇

1) Basically, @USAmbUN contends that Resolution 2231 has given every countries named as "JCPOA participant" a fixed & perpetual right to "snap back" international sanctions on Iran regardless of whether they participate or not, or perform their own obligations under JCPOA or not!

2) The U.S ambassador draws her assertion from what she probably views as a strictly "literal" reading of the text and calls upon the president of the UNSC to basically ignore all developments, official statements and practice subsequent to the drafting of Resolution 2231!

3) The arguments she puts forth to support this ridiculous claim are all so flawed, so coarse, so disingenuous and so loose that it would really be a waste of time to dignify each with a separate elaborated rebuttal.

3) But it may serve to remind the U.S representative to the U.N - and the honorable @indonesiaunny - that in Law, there is a doctrine called the "Doctrine of absurdity" which pertains to the rules of legal interpretation.

4) The "doctrine of absurdity" holds that commonsense interpretation should prevail whenever a strictly literal interpretation of a text leads to seemingly absurd results.

5) Now, if one were to ignore this golden rule and take the @USAmbUN's claim seriously, one would become witness to perhaps the most absurd and ridiculous situation a Security Council resolution has ever created:

6) Under this interpretation we should assume that ALL participants to JCPOA (but Iran) could've just signed the document on July 14, 2015 & withdrawn from it on July 15, leaving Iran alone to perform its obligations by itself, without them really having to do anything in return!

7) And if Iran failed to fulfill its obligations unilaterally, any of its JCPOA counterparts could've just immediately reinstated all Security Council resolutions without any problem, no questions asked!

8) So basically, according to US, there was really no transaction! It was all a sham! The entire JCPOA was about Iran accepting to sit under the UNSC "sword of Damocles" & unilaterally fulfil the diktats of countries who could just withdraw from the deal on any given day!

9) And the whole scheme was called a "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" and it took Iran 12 years of laborious negotiations to embrace such a wonderful deal!

Seriously, @USAmbUN?

10) If that was the case, then why did the Parties to the negotiations bother to draft a whole section on Dispute Resolution as enshrined in 2231? Why did Iran accept such an affliction and, above all, why did @realDonaldTrump call JCPOA the "worst deal in History" for the U.S?

.@Niger_ONU