Mike Pompeo cited Iranian support for Houthi rebels in Yemen as an example of weapons violation (File)
Washington:
The United States will present a UN Security Council resolution next week to extend an arms embargo on Iran despite opposition from Russia and China, Secretary of State Mike said on Wednesday. Pompeo.
The ban on conventional arms sales to Iran ends on October 18, and the United States has threatened to try to force the return of UN sanctions if it is not extended.
Pompeo said the United States would present the long-awaited resolution next week and expressed alarm at indications that China was already preparing arms sales to Iran.
“There are nations lining up to sell weapons that will destabilize the Middle East, endanger Israel, endanger Europe, risk Americans’ lives as well,” Pompeo told reporters.
“We’re not going to let that happen. And so we are using all the diplomatic tools that we have in the toolbox,” he said.
Russia and China exercise veto power over the Security Council and want the embargo to expire as planned in a 2015 resolution.
This resolution blessed a denuclearization agreement with Iran negotiated by then-US President Barack Obama, from which President Donald Trump withdrew, denouncing it as a blunder.
But Pompeo presented the contested argument that the United States remains a “participant” in the deal as it was in the 2015 resolution – and therefore can force a return to sanctions if it sees Iran as being in violation of its terms.
Pompeo cited Iranian support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, which are under attack by US ally Saudi Arabia, as an example of weapons violation.
Even the European allies of the United States have been skeptical about whether Washington can impose sanctions and warn that the attempt could delegitimize the Security Council.
The Europeans back the extension of the embargo, but say the priority should be to preserve the nuclear deal – which is backed by Joe Biden, Trump’s alleged Democratic rival in the November election.
Pompeo met with great skepticism when he directly lobbied the Security Council on the arms embargo in June.
Iran says it has the right to defend itself and that maintaining the ban would mean the end of the nuclear deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last month his government was negotiating a 25-year deal with China, the main country that was prepared to challenge unilateral US sanctions against Tehran.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
