The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations has called US efforts to extend Iran’s arms embargo in contravention of Security Council Resolution 2231, which has endorsed the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, saying the claim that the United States is still a party to the agreement allowing it to invoke a sanctions snapback under certain pretexts is nothing but “an unprecedented joke.”
“Security Council members should pay heed to the fact that any move to counter the lifting of Iran's arms embargo violates UNSC Resolution 2231,” Majid Takht Ravanchi told IRNA in an exclusive interview published on Wednesday.
Washington is reportedly planning to use a threat to trigger a return of all UN sanctions against Iran as leverage to get the 15-member Security Council to prolong the arms embargo on Tehran.
The removal of Iran's arms embargo is based on the nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In defiance of global criticism, the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, which President Donald Trump called “the worst deal ever,” in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions.
The diplomat said that by withdrawing from the JCPOA, the United States violated both Resolution 2231 and its commitments stipulated under the JCPOA, adding that Washington’s international obligations have nothing to do with who is in charge in the White House.
“Moreover, the JCPOA has become part of international law through Resolution 2231, and it is unacceptable for Americans to say that because the agreement was signed by another government and now a different government is in power, they can withdraw from it,” he added.
The remarks come as the United States has reportedly circulated a draft UN resolution only to a small number of Security Council members, which would indefinitely extend a UN arms embargo on Iran set to expire in October.
Ravanchi went on to say that the current US administration is trying to strike the expiration of the arms embargo from Resolution 2231, saying the embargo itself was “unjustly” imposed on Iran from the very beginning.
He also reacted to reports that the US could still invoke a sanctions snapback because it is named as a deal participant in the 2015 UN resolution, calling it a “jest.”
He said the comments were stunning and unacceptable to the international community, citing the May 8, 2019 statement by the White House that explicitly said it had terminated US participation in the JCPOA.
Iranians won’t bow to threats
Elsewhere in his remarks, the senior diplomat also reacted to Trump’s threats to hit Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf.
He said that over the past 40 years, the Iranian people have shown that they will not back down in the face of threats, and in practice they have shown that they stand up to those who want to speak with an aggressive, threatening or insulting language to them.
“We are patrolling within the framework of international regulations in the Persian Gulf, which is close to our land and our waters, and we have maintained the security of this waterway for many years and will continue to do so,” he stressed.
The remarks came after Trump tweeted last Wednesday that he had told the United States Navy to "shoot down and destroy" Iranian gunboats that "harass" US ships.
He said later in the day that US Navy ships would shoot "out of the water" Iranian gunboats that get too close.
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