Iran’s Mission Asks for Tokyo’s Support for UNSC Resolution 2231

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Iranian embassy in Japan underlined friendly ties between the two countries, and asked for Tokyo’s support for the UN Security Council resolution 2231 and opposition to the US sanctions.

News ID: 81098

Date: 14 May 2020 - 15:33

“The international community, except the US regime, does not agree to put pressure on countries during coronavirus pandemic,” the Iranian mission wrote on its twitter page on Wednesday.

“Given the friendly and traditional relations between Iran and Japan, we expect Tokyo to support the UN Security Council resolution and not to accompany the imposer of sanctions on Iran in international forums, especially the World Health Organization,” it added.

Reports said in recent weeks that Washington is planning to use a threat to trigger a return of all UN sanctions against Iran as leverage to get the 15-member Security Council to prolong the arms embargo on Tehran.

The removal of Iran's arms embargo is based on the nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In defiance of global criticism, the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, which President Donald Trump called “the worst deal ever,” in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions.

Earlier this month, Iranian Permanent Envoy to the UN Majid Takht-e Ravanchi described the US attempts to extend the arms sanctions against Iran as running against the UN resolution 2231.

The claim that the United States is still a party to the agreement allowing it to invoke a sanctions snapback under certain pretexts is nothing but “an unprecedented joke”, Takht-e Ravanchi said.

“Security Council members should pay heed to the fact that any move to counter the lifting of Iran's arms embargo violates UNSC Resolution 2231,” he added.

The diplomat said that by withdrawing from the JCPOA, the United States violated both Resolution 2231 and its commitments stipulated under the JCPOA, adding that Washington’s international obligations have nothing to do with who is in charge in the White House.

“Moreover, the JCPOA has become part of international law through Resolution 2231, and it is unacceptable for Americans to say that because the agreement was signed by another government and now a different government is in power, they can withdraw from it,” he added.

The remarks come as the United States has reportedly circulated a draft UN resolution only to a small number of Security Council members, which would indefinitely extend a UN arms embargo on Iran set to expire in October.

Takht-e Ravanchi went on to say that the current US administration is trying to strike the expiration of the arms embargo from Resolution 2231, saying the embargo itself was “unjustly” imposed on Iran from the very beginning.

Message end/