Gharibabadi:

End of arms embargo another failure for US

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iran's Permanent Envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Kazem Gharibabadi says the lifting of arms embargo on Tehran, despite the US’ struggles, marks another failure for Washington in the international arena.

News ID: 82319

Date: 18 October 2020 - 13:30

The longstanding UN ban on the sale of arms from/to Iran was terminated early on Sunday under the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that blessed the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.

Following the removal of the bans, the Iranian envoy to the IAEA said that based on the UN resolution, “From now on, the governments cannot refer to the anti-Iran bans during the trade of weapons with Iranian origin.”

Noting that the United States had taken every possible step to prevent this from happening, Gharibabadi said, “This was another failure and a major setback for the US."

He added that the US’ isolation in the UN Security Council and the repetition of its failures to push unilateral measures against Iran sends an important message on the political aspect.

In response to the question of whether the United States can take another step to keep the arms embargo, given the claim that it had triggered the so-called snapback mechanism, Gharibabadi said, "Legally no!"

“The United States did everything in its power to bring the sanctions back to the UN Security Council, and was opposed by a majority of its members.”

However, the envoy noted, “In practice, the US may try to dissuade governments and corporations from engaging with Iran by putting pressure on them and threatening to put their names on its list of unilateral sanctions.”

"These actions by the United States are in conflict with UN Security Council Resolution 2231," he stressed.

The administration of US President Donald Trump suffered an embarrassing loss on August 14 as it failed to renew the Iranian arms embargo through a resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Russia and China voted against the motion and the remaining 11 council members, including France, Germany and the UK, abstained.

Following the humiliating failure, the United States vowed to use its “secondary” sanctions to block any arms trades with Tehran after the expiry of the UN ban.

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