Pompeo urges the United Nations to extend the arms embargo to Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took advantage of a UN report confirming that Iranian weapons were used to attack Saudi Arabia in September and that they were part of a weapons shipment seized months ago off the coast of Yemen; State Department correspondent Rich Edson reports.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday in another attempt to persuade the international security group to extend the arms embargo against Iran.
“This chamber has a choice: to defend international peace and security, like the United Nations” [UN’s] The founders sought, or let the arms embargo in the Islamic Republic of Iran expire, betraying the UN mission and its best ideals, which we have all promised to uphold, “Pompeo said during a video conference.
The arms embargo against Iran will expire in October as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement signed by Iran, the EU and permanent members of the UN Security Council, including the United States. , who pulled out of the deal in 2018 under President Trump, who called the deal “decaying and rotten.”
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Pompeo urged the council to consider Iran’s ability to buy “Russian-made fighter jets” should the embargo expire, adding that the plane has the ability to attack “up to a radius of 3,000 kilometers, placing cities such as Riyadh , New Delhi, Rome, and Warsaw in the Iranian sights. “
Pompeo said Iran could more easily supply weapons to terrorist organizations known as Hamas and Hezballah, and become a “dishonest arms dealer” that benefits from weapons supplied to Venezuela and Syria.
The United States has already created a draft resolution calling for the embargo to be extended indefinitely. And while the resolution only needs nine of the 15 votes to pass, Britain, China, France or Russia cannot veto it.
China and Russia are likely to veto the law, as their partnership has only strengthened while the United States has declined, particularly with China in recent months.
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Pompeo warned that they, too, should be careful about the expiration of the arms embargo, saying Iran will threaten economic stability in the Middle East, which in turn will affect stable energy prices that countries like China and Russia rely on.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also said: “When the embargo is lifted … next year, we can easily buy and sell arms.”
“We should accept his word,” added Pompeo.
“Just consider the report of the secretary-general that we are discussing today,” he continued. “The report confirmed that the weapons used to attack Saudi Arabia in September 2019 were of Iranian origin.”
“The report also confirmed that the weapons intercepted off the coast of Yemen in November 2019 and February 2020 were of Iranian origin,” Pompeo said, noting that Iran is already in breach of the terms of its arms agreement before the expiration date. .
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Addressing the comments made by Pompeo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Security Council that any change to the agreement, including the extension of the embargo, is “equivalent to undermining [the JCPOA]… In its whole.”
“The council should not allow a single state to abuse the process,” said Zarif.
Security Council members criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the nuclear deal in 2018, saying it would threaten efforts to stabilize security in the region and nuclear non-proliferation.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany recently submitted a resolution through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), condemning Iran’s lack of transparency and nuclear compliance.
However, it is unclear whether the United Kingdom or France will align with the United States’ resolution to extend Iran’s arms embargo.
UK Deputy Representative to the UN Jonathan Allen agreed that lifting the arms embargo in October “would have important implications for regional security and stability.” But Allen also said that “preserving the JCPOA will continue to be the guiding principle” in the UK decision on how to proceed with Iranian weapons.
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“Seventy-five years ago, the founders of the UN came together after the devastation of World War II to ensure that the world would never again have to face such horrors,” Pompeo said in his closing remarks to the council.
“Let us maintain the mission of this body to address the threats to international peace and security presented by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.
