US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that next week the United States will bring to a vote in the United Nations Security Council a proposal to extend the international arms embargo currently imposed on Iran. The embargo, placed on Tehran in 2015 as part of the comprehensive nuclear deal it signed with the Western world, is scheduled to expire on October 18. Pompeo told reporters that the American bid is “eminently reasonable. One way or another we will … ensure that the arms embargo is extended.” Yet the path to reimposing the weapons ban remains tricky. While Russia and China are likely to veto any such resolution in the Security Council, finding the nine requisite “yea” votes remains a formidable task. If its bid fails, Washington plans instead to try to employ the “snapback” clause of the deal by submitting to the Security Council a complaint of Iran’s breaching the 2015 agreement, a move that would effectively kill the nuclear deal and reimpose all pre-2015 sanctions. Despite the fact that the US pulled out of the deal under President Donald Trump, it claims it can still submit such complaints.