U.S. Isolated at U.N. as Push to Ramp Up Pressure on Iran Fails

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference to announce the Trump administration's restoration of sanctions on Iran at the State Department in Washington on Sept. 21. Patrick Semansky / Pool / AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration celebrated the 75th birthday of the United Nations by ramping up its campaign to kill off one of the most significant multilateral agreements of the century: the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

But the unilateral U.S. effort to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran appeared to be in tatters, as key U.N. powers redoubled their support for the pact, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres rebuffed an appeal from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reimpose multilateral sanctions.