Mike Pompeo accuses Europe of inaction over Iran arms

The Trump administration says sanctions have been reactivated under the 'snapback' mechanism in a 2015 nuclear treaty

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticised European powers for failing to back Washington over sanctions on Tehran. AFP

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said European leaders "haven't lifted a finger" to halt arms sales to Iran after they rejected a unilateral US declaration that UN sanctions on Tehran were back in force.

The Trump administration said sanctions were reactivated under the "snapback" mechanism in a 2015 nuclear treaty signed by Iran and several world powers.

Washington withdrew from the deal in 2018.

On Sunday, France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement saying Washington's "purported notification" was "incapable of having any legal effect".

Mr Pompeo told Fox News that "arms sales, tanks, air defence systems, all of those, in a couple of weeks, would have been permitted to have been sold" to Iran.

The European nations have not joined the US in this, he said.

"They tell us privately we don't want the arms sales to come back but they haven't lifted a finger," Mr Pompeo said.

He said that "weapons that Iran will sell will end up in the hands of Hezbollah and make life tragically worse for the people of Lebanon", which was rocked last month by a major explosion at the port in Beirut.

The sanctions on Iran were lifted when it joined the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) and Germany in signing the 2015 treaty to curb the Iranian nuclear programme.

Mr Pompeo on Sunday also called for fundamental changes to Iran's government in remarks at a conservative megachurch in suburban Dallas, Texas.

"We pray for the Iranian people that they will get a government that they deserve," he said.