The U.S. has circulated the text of a new resolution to Security Council members calling on them to support the extension of the U.N. arms embargo against Iran, Bloomberg News which obtained a copy of the text reported on Wednesday.
According to Bloomberg the text of the new proposed resolution is almost identical to another one circulated in June to signal that the Trump administration is unwilling to make the changes suggested by U.S. allies.
Iran has been under embargo since March 2007 when the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1747 issued in connection with its ambitious nuclear program banned arms sales to Iran. However, the nuclear agreement with western powers in 2015 stipulated that the embargo could be lifted in October 2020 if Iran abided by the terms of the agreement officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Russia and China, two of the permanent five nations that enjoy veto power on the Security Council, want the UN embargo on selling conventional weapons to Iran to end on October 18 as laid out in the JCPOA.
The new U.S. proposed text calls on the international community to refrain from providing any “technical training, financial resources or services, advice, other services or assistance related to the supply, sale, transfer, manufacture, maintenance, or use of arms” to Iran in addition to stopping all arms trade with the country.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Kelly Craft and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have threatened to invoke the "snapback" mechanism of the nuclear agreement to revive all the U.N. sanctions on Iran. China and Russia which are likely to veto any resolution against Iran and even the European sides of the nuclear agreement contend that the U.S. does not have the authority to invoke the snapback mechanism because of the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in May 2018.
On August 2 in an interview with Fox News Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said lifting of the embargo will allow the Chinese and the Russians to sell weapons systems to Iran and then allow Iran to sell those weapons systems and other arms around the world as well.
