Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses students during a meeting at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Moscow on September 1, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Moscow, September 2 (RHC)-- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has once again strongly criticized Washington's attempts to reinstate sanctions on Iran in violation of a multilateral 2015 nuclear deal, saying such unlawful bids are doomed to failure.

"The United States has lost all its rights by abandoning its obligations under the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," Lavrov said in an address to students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Tuesday.

“The United States wants now to use a rather complex, sophisticated legal instrument, which was laid down in the JCPOA and approved by the United Nations Security Council [Resolution 2231 that endorses the deal], to restore the collective sanctions,” he said.

However, he emphasized, the snapback mechanism has been envisaged “exclusively for a situation when Iran does not fulfill its obligations, which is not the case.”  The top Russian diplomat also criticized the U.S. for threatening to re-impose unilateral sanctions on Iran and to ban all other countries from doing trade with the country.

The United States is trying to invoke the snapback mechanism in the multilateral nuclear agreement despite its withdrawal from the accord in May 2018 in violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2231.

All the remaining signatories to the JCPOA say the U.S. does not have the legal right to trigger the provision set out in the JCPOA because it pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal two years ago, in May 2018.