Making a reference to the United States failure at the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says Washington should take a lesson from its total failures.
“The int’l community, once again & w/ a clear voice, rejected the US reckless & futile attempt to undermine the #UNSC credibility,” Abbas Mousavi wrote on his Twitter page on Saturday morning.
“The #American_regime should take a lesson from its total failures & stop shaming itself at UN, otherwise it will get isolated, even more than now,” he added.
The tweet came after the UN Security Council resoundingly rejected the U.S. bid to extend the arms embargo, with Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing a summit of world leaders to avoid “confrontation” over a threat by Washington to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Tehran.
In the Security Council vote on Friday, Washington got support only from the Dominican Republic for its resolution to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran, leaving it far short of the minimum nine “yes” votes required for adoption, Al Jazeera reported.
Eleven members on the 15-member body, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany abstained.
Russia and China strongly opposed extending the 13-year ban, which is due to expire on October 18 under the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Iran and six world powers.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the defeat of the resolution ahead of a very brief virtual council meeting to reveal the vote.
“The Security Council’s failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable,” Pompeo said in a statement.
In a statement on Thursday, Iran’s permanent mission to the UN had called on the UN Security Council to stand up to the “ill-intentioned” move by the U.S. government.
“The U.S. draft resolution, presented in gross violation of Security Council Resolution 2231, is aimed at addressing U.S. domestic policy and has nothing to do with maintaining international peace and security,” the mission said, according to Press TV.
“The draft resolution undermines the integrity, authority, and credibility of the Security Council; and by extension, the United Nations, multilateralism, the rule of law and diplomacy,” it added.
In a bid to gain more council support, the U.S. slashed its earlier draft resolution on Tuesday to just four paragraphs that would simply extend the arms ban on Tehran “until the Security Council decides otherwise,” claiming it’s “essential to the maintenance of international peace and security.”
The Iranian mission said the United States baselessly accuses Iran of instability in the region to satisfy its deep addiction to sanctions and to justify its irresponsible behavior in the Council.
“While its interventions, destructive behavior, divisive policies, and insatiable appetite for exporting its deadly weapons to countries in the region as well as the presence of a large number of its forces in the Middle East (West Asia), their involvement and spreading lies and destructive acts are the main sources of instability, insecurity and human suffering in this region,” it underlined.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed out that Washington has no legal right to invoke the snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions against Tehran under the nuclear deal that the U.S. unilaterally left in May 2018.
“Legally speaking, the United States is no position to use the snapback [mechanism]. The three European allies of the United States also explicitly stated at a previous meeting of the UN Security Council that the United States could not use this mechanism,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
