No Intention to Join Regional Arms Race

Even with the removal of global restrictions, Iran has no intention to join the arms race in the region, which only serves the financial interests of weapons manufacturers, a senior government official said. 
"Iran's weapons have always been a guarantee for territorial and regional peace and security," Government Spokesman Ali Rabiei said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday, ISNA reported.
He added that Iranians have never initiated a military aggression against any country in recent centuries, but have invited regional states to sign peace treaties and have valiantly fought terrorism, violence and extremism. 
Iran's arms embargo expired on Oct. 18, as per the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed it. 
The United States made several attempts to prevent the termination of the arms embargo, accusing Iran of destabilizing the region.
It submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council on the indefinite extension of the restrictions, but failed to win enough votes. 
Washington then moved ahead with its threat to trigger the return of all UN sanctions through JCPOA’s snapback process, but UNSC member states refused to recognize the reinstatement of revoked resolutions against Iran, maintaining that the US measure was groundless as it had quit the accord in 2018. 
Rabiei said the US fear is not of Iran’s free arms trade, but of the possibility that the termination of the ban would pave the way for the removal of all its cruel sanctions on medicine, banking and humanitarian goods.  
He said the arms embargo was unacceptable for Iran from the beginning and was based on a false anti-Iran sentiment.
"Neither did the sanctions restrict Iran’s defensive capability, nor will their removal make a new change in the path we had taken," he said. 
Iran has no plans for arms purchase at the moment, according to Rabiei, but any time it feels essential based on its legitimate defensive needs, it will take measures according to international norms and the inalienable right of defense of all states.
He said Iran has great capacities in producing special defense hardware and is ready to engage in their trade with any requesting country under its own conditions.
"Of course, the Islamic Republic will have reservations for arms trade. Our arms trade doctrine is not different from our defense doctrine," he said.