US says has support for Iran arms embargo extension

There is growing support for the US' revised draft resolution indefinitely extending the UN arms embargo against Iran, according to the country's soon-to-depart special representative for Iran, Brian Hook.

Hook said the US' new draft resolution, introduced yesterday, is a compromise that also addresses European concerns, notably from France, Germany and the UK, that any resolution would be more difficult to pass through the UN Security Council (UNSC) with a "very strong" structure on monitoring and enforcing sanctions compliance.

"It is a clean roll-over of the existing arms embargo. We have not seen any change of heart by the Iranian regime to be at peace with its neighbours," said Hook. "Permanent members of the UNSC have all supported the same provisions we are now proposing and have done so several times in the past."

He also drew support from six members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — who recently called on the UN to extend the current ban on transport of conventional weapons in or out of Iran. The ban expires under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on 18 October.

In a nod to European concerns, the new US resolution removes portions of an original proposal that enumerated its numerous complaints about Iran's foreign actions since 1979 and criticised the JCPOA. But even if the US sways its European allies behind it, the resolution is likely to fail because Russia and China are likely to veto it.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo expects most UNSC members to agree to an extension of the arms embargo. But if the UNSC does not, or if China and Russia veto, the US has previously threatened to invoke a "snap-back" provision supposedly requiring reimposition, also by the EU, of economic sanctions against Iran.

Hook would not say what the US would in terms of economic sanction snap-back provisions under the JCPOA, if its resolution for an extended arms embargo failed.

"One way or another we are going to ensure the arms embargo will be extended," said Hook, who will soon be succeeded as the state department's Iran envoy by Elliott Abrams.

By Dafydd ab Iago