American envoys have finalized the text of a proposal to extend an arms embargo on Iran ahead of a United Nations Security Council showdown with high stakes for the 2015 nuclear deal.
“It is a straightforward, commonsense measure requested by countries in the Middle East that have suffered the most as a result of the Iranian regime’s active support for terrorism and mayhem across the region and beyond,” said Kelly Craft, the United States ambassador to the U.N.
The draft proposal comes after more than a year of diplomatic posturing by Security Council heavyweights and the participants in the Iran nuclear deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened to use American prerogatives to shred the nuclear deal unilaterally if the arms embargo extension is blocked while Russia has opposed the extension and claimed that the U.S. has no right to take down the Iran deal, given that President Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018.
“Iran’s actions fuel conflict, chaos, and human suffering on a broad scale,” Craft said Wednesday. “It is unimaginable that the U.N. Security Council would overlook this behavior — verified by the secretary-general in his recent report on UNSCR 2231 — and unlock Iran’s access to combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, tanks, missile systems, and other advanced weapons.”
The proposal would extend the arms embargo “until the Security Council decides otherwise,” according to Reuters. That language is a step back from an initial draft that included extensive instructions on the enforcement of the arms embargo, which is scheduled to expire in October, according to the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Rebuffed by UNSC members, US was forced to retreat from its draft resolution on Iran arms embargo, and proposed another version,” tweeted Majid Takht Ravanchi, the Iranian ambassador to the U.N. “The new draft is similar — in its NATURE and GOAL — to the previous. Confident that the Council will — again — reject this move.”
Russia and China have veto power over any new resolutions proposed in the Security Council, but Pompeo has promised to achieve his goal. A unilateral renewal of the arms embargo is possible, but only by triggering the snapback of all of the international sanctions waived by the resolution that affirmed the implementation of the Iran deal.
“I call upon all Security Council members to wake up to the real-world implications of allowing this arms embargo to lapse,” Craft said. “The Security Council’s central purpose is to promote global peace and security. Failure to extend the arms embargo would make a mockery of that sacred responsibility on which the United Nations was created.”
