The United Nations Security Council has rejected a bid by the United States to extend a global arms embargo on Iran. The US got support only from the Dominican Republic for its resolution to indefinitely extend the embargo, when it needed a minimum of nine ‘yes’ votes.
Eleven of the 15-member body, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, abstained. Russia and China strongly opposed extending the 13-year ban, which was due to expire on October 18 under a 2015 nuclear deal signed between Iran and six other nations.
The US stripped anti-Iran rhetoric from earlier drafts of the resolution hoping to gain more supporters. But, its insistence that an extension to the UN embargo would be indefinite made that impossible
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Israel and the six Arab Gulf nations who supported the extension “know Iran will spread even greater chaos and destruction if the embargo expires”, “but the Security Council chose to ignore them”. Zhang Jun, China's ambassador to the UN, said that the result “once again shows that unilateralism receives no support and bullying will fail.
Washington might now act on the threat to impose all UN sanctions on Iran using a provision in the nuclear deal.
Tensions between Iran and the US have been heightened since 2018, when Trump backed out of the nuclear deal and imposed trade sanctions on Iran, which put pressure on its economy. Following incidents where the UK detained an Iranian vessel on request of the US and Iran detaining a UK tanker as retaliation, tensions further escalated after Qassem Soleimani, IRGC chief was killed by a US choreographed drone attack.
The US' defeat at the UN forum is a diplomatic catastrophe.
US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, lashed out at other member states and said, “The Security Council’s failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable.”
As per some analysts, Washington put forward a hardline draft purposefully, knowing that council members would not be able to accept it.
In a statement released by the Kremlin, Putin said “the question is urgent”, adding that the goal of the videoconference would be “to outline steps to avoid confrontation and exacerbation of the situation in the UN Security Council”.
