(Washington) US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo made clear on Thursday that the United States would attempt to impose a reinstatement of UN sanctions on Iran if the international arms embargo were to expire .
Posted on 30 July 2020 at 18 h 48
France Media Agency
During a parliamentary hearing, he confirmed that Washington would present “in the near future” a resolution to the United Nations Security Council to extend this embargo on conventional arms sales to Tehran, which expires on 18 October.
“We hope that it will be approved by the other permanent members” of the Council, he said, while considering it probable that China, even Russia, will use their right of veto to s' oppose it.
“If it is not adopted, we will take the necessary measures to ensure that this arms embargo does not expire,” insisted Mike Pompeo.
The United States has already felt that it has the right to impose the reinstatement of the UN economic sanctions against Tehran lifted as part of the international agreement of 2015 on Iranian nuclear power – and in their minds, even though US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from this deal in 2018.
“We have the capacity to implement this recovery and we will use it in a way to protect and defend America”, warned the Secretary of State, who had never said so clearly as Washington was prepared to follow through on this threat.
The Trump administration believes that 2015 's agreement is insufficient to prevent Iran from acquiring the atomic bomb.
But the State Department wants to use a legal quibble: since the resolution of the Security Council which had ratified in 2015 the Iranian nuclear agreement presented the United States as a “participating” state, then they can impose the return of sanctions.
Washington’s European allies, while showing their willingness to extend the arms embargo, have expressed their reservations about such a tactic.
The Trump administration has already unilaterally reinstated the US sanctions initially lifted as part of the 2015 agreement.
Mike Pompeo announced Thursday a new turn of the screw in order to bring the Iranian economy to its knees and to bend the power of Tehran. He warned that the United States would henceforth punish any person or entity that would bring to Iran 22 metals, including certain forms of aluminum or steel, likely to be used in Iranian weapons programs.
