Russia and China will regret the expansion of Iran’s military arsenal if they allow an international arms embargo on the regime to expire later this year, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“Iran will be free to purchase new and advanced technologies for its proxies and partners throughout the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” Pompeo said during a virtual meeting of the United Nations Security Council. “Iran will hold a sword of Damocles over the economic stability of the Middle East, endangering nations like Russia and China that rely on stable energy prices.”
His allusion to the volatility that Iran’s military modernization could bring was part of his argument for why Russia and China should back a U.S. effort to extend an arms embargo that is scheduled to expire in October, pursuant to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Russia and China are regarded as Iran’s likely weapons dealers, but Pompeo’s team hopes that pressure from Middle Eastern nations will prove persuasive.
“Russia and the United States, and China for that matter, have a shared interest in a more peaceful and stable Middle East,” Brian Hook, the State Department’s point man for Iran issues, told reporters recently. “One of the preambular paragraphs in the Iran nuclear deal states that the deal will contribute to regional peace and stability. Iran has not upheld its end of the bargain.”
Pompeo has threatened to invoke a provision of the deal that would trigger a snapback of all international sanctions on the regime if the Security Council refused to agree to extend the embargo, but he focused on the embargo on Tuesday.
“Listen to countries in the region, from Israel to the Gulf,” he said. “Countries in the Middle East who are most exposed to Iran’s predations are speaking with a single voice: ‘Extend the arms embargo.’”
