US must be held accountable for abusing UN Security Council: Iran envoy

Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations office in Geneva has criticized the United States for attempting to extend an arms embargo against the Islamic Republic, saying the US must be held to account for taking advantage of the UN Security Council to achieve its own political goals.

“#US must be held to account and bear responsibility, not to be APPEASEMBOLDENED, for its bullying behavior and recurring pattern of wrongful (ab)use of the #UNSC & manipulation of its decisions,” Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh tweeted on Sunday. 

He added that Washington’s invocation of Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses a landmark 2015 nuclear between Iran and major world powers, is a “travesty, flouting a fundamental principle” governing international relations.

In his tweet, the Iranian diplomat included Article 91 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which says, “…a party, which disowns or doesn’t fulfill its own obligations cannot be recognized as retaining the rights, which it claims to derive from the relationship.”

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said Iran will serve a “decisive response” to a potential extension of the arms embargo against the country.

“Iran will serve an appropriate and decisive response to such a measure,” Mousavi told a press conference in Tehran, referring to the potential submission of Iran’s case to the United Nations Security Council and the likely extension of the embargo.

He, however, hoped for such a prospect not to come about, adding, “We are waiting to see the direction in which the circumstances are going to develop, and will then act based on them and deliver a response.”

The remarks come after a report by The New York Times on April 26 said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo planned to invoke a provision in the UN-endorsed international nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in an attempt to either extend beyond October the UN arms embargo in place against Iran since 2006/2007 or get the world body to slap even harsher sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

In defiance of global criticism, the US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, which President Trump called “the worst deal ever,” in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions.

In a post on his official Twitter account on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to his American counterpart’s attempts to push ahead with the United Nations arms embargo extension on Iran, saying the “United States of Arms” is pouring weapons all over the globe as it is the world’s top war initiator. 

Zarif labeled the US as the world’s “top military spender, arms seller, war initiator & instigator and conflict profiteer.”

He said while the United States has long been the number one military spender and arms seller in the world, its secretary of state is “apparently worried about Iran.”

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