On May 04, 2020, Iran dismissed as “illegitimate” efforts by the United States to extend the U.N. Security Council arms embargo on Tehran, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers … America’s move is illegitimate and our reaction will be proportionate,” Abbas Mousavi said in a televised weekly news conference.

On April 30, the United States said it was “hopeful” the U.N. Security Council would extend the arms embargo on Iran before it expires in October.

President Donald Trump’s administration has been taking a harder line with the United Nations over its desire to extend and strengthen the embargo on Iran.

Washington has threatened to trigger a return of all U.N. sanctions on Iran as leverage to get backing from the 15-member Security Council on extending the U.N. arms embargo on Tehran.

“The United States is not a member of the nuclear deal anymore … Iran’s reaction to America’s illegal measures will be firm,” Mousavi said.

Comments

Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran that have crippled its economy.

Mikhail ULYANOV, Permanent Representative of Russia to International Organizations in Vienna, told IRNA on May 3 that if the US does not gain success with the UN Security Council’s approval of the extension of the arms embargo on Iran, it will try another way. The way that will come to nothing, Ulyanov stressed.

US is trying to pretend that it is one of the six participants in the July 2015 nuclear deal, while it withdrew unilaterally from the deal in May 2018, the Russian diplomat said. As Ulyanov said, the United States endeavors to prevent lifting the arms embargo against Iran scheduled to take effect from October 2020 under the pretext of Tehran’s reduction of commitments to the international deal.

On the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the deal on May 8, 2019, Tehran decided to reduce its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), based on Article 26 and 36 and set a deadline for Europeans to remedy breaches.

The Russian diplomat said that he believes that the US officials are after the annihilation of the JCPOA; however, their effort seems to be fruitless.

Talking about the trigger mechanism or dispute mechanism, Ulyanov said the United States cannot make the mechanism be operated because Washington is no longer a member of the JCPOA due to its unilateral withdrawal from the deal in 2018.

About the US efforts to make a link between JCPOA and Iran’s missile program, the official said those efforts will not be fruitful as a claim made by Washington lacks legal grounds.

In related developments, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali SHAMKHANI wrote on May 03 that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will die forever if the expiry of the arms embargo on Iran not be respected.

SHAMKHANI wrote on his twitter page that any continuation of the arms embargo on Iran will be bypassing UNSC Resolution 2231.

Resolution 2231 (2015) urges full implementation of the JCPOA on the timetable established in JCPOA and sets forth the following steps for the eventual removal of Security Council sanctions on Iran.

Iran, Russia, China, and some European countries have already stressed that the measure taken by the US towards the arms embargo issue shows its wrong understanding about the Resolution.

At the end of his remarks, the Russian representative at the international organizations talked about the joint commission meeting on the JCPOA, saying that no time has been set for the meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 Iranian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna said US attempts to establish itself as a JCPOA participant lack legal basis because the American President Donald Trump has already ended US’ participation.

“The U.S. attempts to establish itself as “JCPOA participant” have no legal grounds. Para 10, UNSC Res 2231 is a reflection of para 1.2 Annex IV of the JCPOA which enumerates “JCPOA participants”, Kazem GHARIBABADI wrote in the official Twitter account of the Permanent Mission of Iran to UN-Vienna. “Trump ended the U.S. participation in JCPOA issuing a Presidential Memoranda on May 8, 2018: “… and I am today making good on my pledge to end the participation of the United States in the JCPOA,” he added.

“The U.S. has also ended its participation in practice, it has not participated in the meetings within the framework of the JCPOA since its unilateral withdrawal from the Deal,” Iranian diplomat noted.

“It has also violated all its commitments as a JCPOA participant and has spared no efforts to destroy it through the imposition of sanctions and threatening others to be punished in case of trade with Iran.”

Earlier, Head of Iranian President’s Office Mahmoud VAEZI described enmity with JCPOA as the most obvious anti-Iran characteristic in the region and world, saying that the US government even with its maximum pressure campaign has failed vis-a-vis JCPOA’s internal strength.

This article was edited using the data from the Reuters, Irna, and english.alarabiya.net.

Source of the photo: AFP.