The United States’ State Department is claiming that the United Nations Security Council has failed to “hold Iran accountable” following the Security Council’s rejection on Friday of the U.S.-proposed resolution to extend an arms embargo on Iran set to expire on October 18.
In a statement, the State Department criticized the Security Council for proving unable to “[uphold] its fundamental mission set” to maintain international peace and security, for rejecting “a reasonable resolution to extend the 13-year old arms embargo on Iran,” and for “[paving] the way for the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell conventional weapons without specific U.N. restrictions in place for the first time in over a decade”.
“The Security Council’s failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable,” the statement said.
Iran’s veto-wielding allies in the Security Council, Russia and China, had made it clear that they would vote against the resolution. Two countries – the United States and the Dominican Republic – voted in favor of the extension of the embargo, while 11 other countries – including France, Britain and Germany – abstained from voting. Nine votes were required for the resolution to pass.
Washington has threatened to trigger a “snapback” of all U.N. sanctions on Iran if the embargo vote failed, a move experts say will throw the Security Council into crisis.
“Under Resolution 2231, the United States has every right to initiate snapback of provisions of previous Security Council resolutions,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft said in a statement. “In the coming days, the United States will follow through on that promise to stop at nothing to extend the arms embargo.”
The State Department’s statement also alleged that the Council has rejected the appeals from “numerous countries in the Middle East endangered by Iran’s violence,” and maintained that Arab nations and Israel strongly supported extending the embargo.
“The United States will never abandon its friends in the region who expected more from the Security Council,” the statement said.
The three European members of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have explained their reasons for abstaining in separate statements after the announcement of the vote.
Britain, France and Germany expressed their commitment to the agreement with Iran, but stressed that they have serious concerns about “Iran’s conduct in the region” and its “violations of the provisions of the Security Council’s conventional arms restrictions,” as well as “systematic non-compliance with key JCPOA commitments since July 2019.”
Source » radiofarda