The US on Tuesday introduced an updated and more streamlined draft Security Council resolution that would extend a thirteen-year arms embargo on Iran that will expire in October – and that the US has promised to extend.
The technical resolution of technical rollover, a short four paragraphs, would simply extend the embargo “until the Security Council decides otherwise.”
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“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. “The concept we have put forward today takes into account the Council’s views 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 common that the # The world’s 1 state sponsor for terrorism is not given the means to inflict even greater damage to the world. ‘
Reuters, which first received the resolution, report that the U.S. asked for comment on the text Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. ET.
The initial draft had, according to Bloomberg News, called on all Member States to stop all arms sales to and from Iran and, “refuse to provide technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to supply. “, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance or use of weapons,” to Iran.
One Security Council diplomat told Fox News before today’s updated draft resolution was released that Russia and China, which had signaled that they would not vote for the US draft, should not use their fetus because the diplomat did not believe that the United States needed the nine votes to put the veto into play. With the latest change, the two permanent members of the council would now be forced to use their fetuses.
The Trump administration said last week that it intends to seek a vote in the Security Council this week to extend the embargo, which expires as part of the 2015 Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action .
The administration left the agreement in 2018, but the US retains rights under a UN Security Council resolution, which anchored the deal and the US has argued that it has the option to reverse the embargo “unilaterally”, even if the Security Council does not vote in favor of an extension.
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The US says it would have preferred the Security Council to extend the embargo, but has not ruled out acting unilaterally if the resolution does not garner enough votes or is met by a veto from Russia or China.
“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,” U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft told Fox News ” The Story ” on Monday.
A diplomatic source told Fox News that current planning on Friday would bring a vote on the U.S. resolution. And if the vote fails Friday, a U.S. official says the administration would inform the Security Council next week that it intends to trigger the snapback process.
The US has been engaged in a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran to pressure the Iranian regime to stop its destabilizing activities in the region and its financing of terrorist groups. That has taken up the imposition of sanctions on Iranian institutions and top officials – as well as taking out Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in an airstike earlier this year.
Officials have warned that lifting the embargo would allow Iran fighter jets, attack choppers, tanks, submarines and missiles with a range of up to 300 km.
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Craft said Monday that Russia and China were “waiting to sell arms to Iran” and warned that those weapons could then be exported to terrorist groups in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya and Lebanon.
“We have no choice but to renew the arms embargo and promote peace and security around the world,” she said.
Fox News’ Rich News contributed to this report.
