Arab Allies Join U.S. in Calling for Iran Embargo

Date: 09 August 2020 - 22:09

News ID: ۸۱۵۶۴

DUBAI (Dispatches) -- The six-member Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has fallen in line with the United States, asking the United Nations to extend an arms embargo on Iran.
The secretariat of the GCC, made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, claimed in a statement on Sunday that Iran’s alleged interference in neighboring countries made an extension necessary.
GCC members reportedly agreed to the statement after weeks of shuttle diplomacy by Brian Hook, the U.S. envoy for Iran, who stepped down on Thursday.
"GCC unity on this issue sends a very strong message to the world, and the Security Council needs to listen to the region,” Hook said in an emailed statement.
Arab states in the Persian Gulf are among the biggest arms spenders in the world. Saudi Arabia was the world’s largest weapons importer in 2015–19, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The kingdom is stuck in a costly war on Yemen it launched in March 2015 in a bid to reinstall the former Saudi-backed regime and crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Riyadh is the largest buyer of American-made weaponry. US President Donald Trump signed an arms deal worth $110 billion with Saudi Arabia in May 2017 on his first foreign trip since becoming president.
The arms embargo on Iran is currently set to end on Oct. 18 under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world countries, which Washington quit in 2018.
If the United States is unsuccessful in extending the embargo, it has threatened to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran under a process agreed in the 2015 deal.
The U.S.-drafted resolution needs at least nine votes in favor to force Russia and China to use their vetoes, which Moscow and Beijing have signaled they will do. Some diplomats question whether Washington can even secure those nine, however.
Diplomats say the UN Security
Council is set next week to roundly reject the U.S. resolution to extend an Iranian arms embargo, setting up a lengthy showdown with repercussions for the Iran nuclear deal.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that the United States would put forward its long-awaited resolution despite ardent opposition from Russia and China as well as its own European allies.
But UN diplomats say opposition to the resolution’s current form is so widespread that Washington is unlikely even to secure the nine votes required to force Moscow and Beijing to wield their vetoes.
Diplomats fear the resolution threatens the nuclear agreement. Iran says it has the right to self-defense and that a continuation of the ban would mean an end to the nuclear deal.
The United States has threatened to try to force a return of UN sanctions if the embargo is not extended by using a controversial technique called "snapback.”
Pompeo has offered the contested argument that the United States remains a "participant” in the nuclear accord as it was listed in the 2015 resolution — and therefore can force a return to sanctions if it sees Iran as being in violation of its terms.
European allies have been skeptical on whether Washington can  force sanctions and warn that the attempt may delegitimize the Security Council.