U.S. Circulates New Resolution on Iran Arms Embargo

Date: 05 August 2020 - 22:04

News ID: ۸۱۴۷۴

UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) -- The U.S. has circulated a new resolution to United Nations Security Council members calling for an extension of the UN’s arms embargo against Iran, Bloomberg News reports.
The text asks UN members states to stop all sales of weapons to and from Iran and to refrain from providing any "technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance, or use of arms” to Iran, the news provider said.
The new resolution is almost identical to one the U.S. circulated in June, signaling the Trump administration is unwilling to make changes suggested by allies and opponents on the Security Council, Bloomberg said.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft acknowledged Tuesday that Russia and China are likely to veto any resolution. Craft and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have threatened to invoke a "snapback” provision in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to reimpose all UN sanctions against Tehran if the resolution is vetoed. The U.S. claims it can do that even though President Donald Trump quit the multinational accord in 2018.
World countries, including many of Washington’s allies, have called it preposterous, saying the U.S. cannot claim to be a party to something it has left.
"The strategy in a perfect world will always be to have them abstain and obviously not veto” the U.S. resolution, Craft said of Russia and China in an online appearance at the annual Aspen Security Forum. "However, let’s be realistic here. Right now the strategy is working with other members of the Security Council” to put China and Russia "in a corner and shine a light on them.”
Iran’s UN ambassador has said he believes the U.S. resolution will be defeated and warned it would be "a very, very big mistake” if the Trump administration then tried to reimpose UN sanctions.
Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said in June that restoring UN sanctions will end the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers and release Tehran from all its commitments.
"If that happens, Iran will not be under constraint as to what course of action it should take,” he said reporters. "All options for Iran will be open.”
Lifting the arms embargo on Tehran is part of the UN 2015 Security Council resolution endorsing the nuclear agreement.
Ravanchi said ending the arms embargo in October "is an essential part of the agreement between Iran and its partners.”
"We believe there is no stomach for members of the Security Council to digest the draft resolution like the one the U.S. presented,” he said. "So, it is our view that the draft resolution will be defeated.”

Ravanchi stressed that Iran will not accept "anything less than full implementation” of the provision lifting the arms embargo.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has dismissed as "ridiculous” the possibility of the Trump administration trying to use the snapback provision, stressing that since the U.S. pulled out of the JCPOA "they have no right” to use any of its provisions.