Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would chair a UN Security Council meeting on Iran next week, nearly a month ahead of the November 4 deadline of the full US sanctions against Tehran coming into force.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration had withdrawn from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and reimposed a series of tough sanctions on Iran.
While the first phase of sanctions is already in place, the sanctions would come into full force on November 4 and the US expects all countries, including India, to bring down their import of Iranian oil to zero by then.
The US government has made it clear that any country that continues to do business with Iran will be blocked from accessing the American banking and financial system.
"I will Chair the United Nations Security Council meeting on Iran next week!" Trump tweeted. Trump is expected to see international support on his Iranian policy in the meeting.
Trump's envoy to the UN on Thursday said that it would be the most watched meeting of the 15-member body.
"It will be the most watched Security Council meeting ever...But he (Trump) will be with all of these heads of countries and he is not going to just talk about Iran. He is going to talk about the chemical weapons issue that we had to work on this month alone to keep from happening in Lebanon and Syria," Nikki Haley told Fox News.
The US sanctions on Iran are not endorsed by the UN and India, one of the biggest importers of Iranian oil, is likely to resist the American pressure as it has been a traditional policy of New Delhi to enforce only UNSC-authorised sanctions.
The Trump administration is currently in talks with India on issues related to Iranian sanctions.
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