Attempts to Prevent Iranian Arms Trade Unlikely to Succeed

The United States’ attempts to prevent the relaxation of Iran’s arms embargo have little chance of success at the United Nations, despite the weight of the US House of Representatives behind it, according to a lawmaker.
“The evil anti-Iran plot of American Congress is doomed to fail,” Hossein Naqavi, spokesman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told ICANA.   
The UN arms embargo on Iran is set to expire in October as per the Security Council’s Resolution 2231 that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
Although US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, his administration is now arguing that Washington still remains an original “participant” under the terms of the resolution that enshrined it.
Based on the argument, the US State Department has prepared a draft UN resolution that would strike the expiration of the arms embargo from Resolution 2231. 
Recently, an overwhelming majority of the US House of Representatives members have signed a letter urging the Trump administration to increase its diplomatic action at the UN to renew the restrictions on Iran, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on Thursday. 
Iranian officials, however, see a very low probability that the UN Security Council would heed the US call. 
Naqavi predicted UN Security Council members that signed the nuclear deal to oppose the move. 
“JCPOA parties have witnessed Iran’s fulfillment of its commitments. Therefore, if Europeans do not wish to stand against US policies, countries such as China and Russia will,” he said.  
Russia and China, two veto-wielding permanent members of the UNSC, have already argued in favor of the UN embargo’s removal and are expected to mount stiff opposition. 
Jalal Mirzaei, another lawmaker, predicted that the arms sanctions will be removed in the near future.
“The White House measures against our country seem unlikely to lead anywhere at the UN Security Council,” he said. 
Washington has also threatened to trigger the deal’s so-called “snapback” mechanism to return all UN sanctions on Iran as leverage to get backing from the 15-member Security Council.
“The US is no longer a party to the nuclear deal and has no say in whether or not its terms should or should not be put into effect,” Naqavi said.  
He said Iran has fulfilled its obligations under JCPOA and it is now time for it to enjoy the deal’s benefits, including the easing of restrictions on the purchase of conventional weapons as a key element of the agreement. 
Iran’s diplomatic body has a great responsibility now, according to Naqavi, and needs to foil the US plot through extensive consultations.