The UN Security Council will vote on Friday on a US resolution to extend the 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran – a resolution that is likely to fail, but not end US efforts to extend the arms embargo.
The US has called on the council to extend the arms embargo, which expires in October as part of Iran’s nuclear deal in 2015 – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).
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On Tuesday, it introduced an updated draft resolution that would simply extend the embargo “until the Security Council decides otherwise.” Councilors have voted in favor of the resolution and the result is expected to be announced around 6:30 ET.
It is far from certain that the US will get the nine votes it needs to pass the council, and even if it does, it will oppose an almost certain veto by China and Russia, which have supported the ability of the Iranian to gain access to weapons.
“The United States has been engaged in good faith diplomacy for months,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday. “The concept we have put forward today takes into account the advice of the Council and simply does what everyone knows should be done – extend the arms embargo to prevent Iran from buying and selling fairly conventional weapons. It is only wise that the no. .1 State sponsor of terrorism not given the means to release even greater damage to the world. ‘
European countries in particular have expressed their continued support for the deal and may vote against the US resolution out of fear that the Iranians would then abandon the deal altogether.
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U.S. officials have meanwhile warned that the expiration of the embargo would allow Iran fighter jets, attack choppers, tanks, submarines and missiles with a range of up to 300 km.
Prior to the vote, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Vienna, where he met with the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said it would be “nose” to lift the embargo.
“We can not allow the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons. I mean, that’s just nuts,” he said.
The US left the JCPoA in 2018, but has claimed that it retains rights under UN Resolution 2231, which anchors the deal – and allows individual nations to “snap back” sanctions including the arms embargo.
The administration has been implementing sanctions on Iran since 2018 as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign designed to stop Tehran’s financing of terrorism in the region and elsewhere.
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The Trump administration has made it clear that if the resolution fails, it intends to use the snapback as other methods to get the embargo extended.
“We have made it very clear that the US will use all the tools in our toolbox to ensure that the arms embargo is renewed,” Craft told Fox News’ ‘The Story’ on Monday.
Ben Evansky, Rich Edson and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
