Right to Free Arms Trade Not to Be Relinquished

Iran has announced to the 2015 nuclear deal parties that the lifting of the United Nations’ arms embargo is not a right to be given up by the Islamic Republic, a top diplomat said. 
“With the approach of the expiration date and the Americans’ uproar [against it], we have held consultations and stressed that this is not an issue that Iran would disregard,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a regular press briefing on Monday, IRNA reported. 
The UN arms embargo on Iran is set to expire in October as per the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
The US unilaterally abandoned the deal, but is now trying to exercise its will about the ban’s relaxation by arguing that it still remains an original “participant” under the terms of the resolution that enshrined it.
Along this line, the US State Department has prepared a draft UN resolution that would strike the expiration from Resolution 2231.
The motion, however, needs nine votes in favor by members of the UN Security Council and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain or France for it to be adopted.
“Americans are not likely to achieve their current goal because their request has no legal grounds and they are no longer a party to JCPOA,” Mousavi said. 
He added that the end of the arms ban was one of the benefits promised under JCPOA, which the US is trying to ruin like other political, economic and security interests it has attempted to jeopardize by quitting the deal and reimposing sanctions on Tehran. 
“I hope it will not come to that, but if it does, Iran’s response would be fitting and decisive,” he said. 

US Presence Destabilizing               

On recent tensions between Iran and the US in the Persian Gulf, Mousavi said Americans at times obstruct the legal and free patrols of Iranian armed forces and receive the required warnings. 
“We basically do not acknowledge the US military’s presence in the Persian Gulf and see it as a disruption of our security and stability, and that of the region as well as free navigation in the waters,” he said. 
The US Navy in mid-April accused Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps of "dangerous and provocative actions" against its vessels in the Persian Gulf, threatening to destroy Iranian gunboats in case of harassment. 
The IRGC rejected the US version of the story, saying the American warships were approaching Iranian waters and ignored warnings when they came into contact with IRGC vessels patrolling the region. It also said Iran would respond decisively to any miscalculation. 
Mousavi said Iran keeps its communication with the US over the issue through the Swiss Embassy as the representative of American interests in Iran as well as its UN mission in New York. 
He also expressed concern over the potential return of the self-styled Islamic State terrorists in Iraq after the group killed at least 10 Iraqi militia members in a recent assault. 
The incident, according to Mousavi, could be linked to Iraq’s call for an end to the presence of foreign military forces, as they might be trying to prove there would be insecurity without them.
“Americans are under pressure from Iraqi people and are seeking to prevent or delay their exit by measures such as strengthening the IS,” he said. 
The Iraqi Parliament passed a resolution, calling on the government to expel foreign troops in early January, after the US assassinated the top Iranian commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani, and his Iraqi companions in Baghdad. 
The people of Iraq also took to the streets in protest against the US aggression on their soil.