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US Goes Public with Iran-Sanctions Threat to Force UN Arms Embargo

Brian Hook, the US special envoy for Iran, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Washington will seek to trigger full United Nations sanctions against Iran unless the Security Council passes a resolution extending an arms embargo. “The 13-year-old arms embargo on the Iranian regime will expire in October,” Hook wrote, explaining that this had been stipulated in a 2015 multilateral agreement struck to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. This would leave the “the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism and anti-Semitism free to import and export combat aircraft, warships, submarines and guided missiles.” Hook went on to issue a veiled threat to use the 2015 accord to trigger a return to full UN sanctions – which include the arms embargo – if one of the five permanent members of the Security Council vetoes the resolution. The diplomat was saying publicly what until now had been attributed only to unidentified US officials. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vassily Nebenzia, the UN ambassador from Russia, a signatory to the 2015 nuclear deal, scoffed at the notion, noting that US President Donald Trump had withdrawn from the agreement in 2018. “This is ridiculous,” Nebenzia said. “They are not members, they have no right to trigger.”