TIMING: Deadline Looms On Iran Deal Just Before Election. “Snapback of Sanctions Is Being Eyed.”

Mr. Pompeo’s attempt to extend the arms embargo could fail, but then America just might get even more bold, using Resolution 2231’s self-destruct mechanism. Known as the “snapback” option, the resolution provided such a path to help the Obama administration sell it at home.

President Obama knew he had no way of turning his plan of action into a treaty. He couldn’t muster the necessary Senate majority to approve it. Instead, he took the deal to a much more sympathetic audience, the United Nations, where he inked it despite the fact that both houses of Congress were against it — overwhelmingly so in the opinion of the New York Times.

If Iran were ever to cheat on its obligations, promised top officials in the Obama administration, we’d at any time be able to end the deal and reimpose full sanctions. Further, they added, no one at the UN could stand in our way.

Hence the “snapback” mechanism that, according to the UN resolution, allows any of the original parties to the JCPOA to “reimpose unilateral and multilateral nuclear-related sanctions in the event of Iran non-performance,” as Secretary of State Kerry told the Senate at the time.

Further, and uniquely in the context of UN traditions, neither Russia nor Communist China nor any other Iran-friendly permanent member of the Security Council would be able to veto the snapback clauses, we were told.

Electing a Democrat president in November would mean letting the Mullahs back out of the box.