Tehran will continue to cooperate with Moscow, regardless of whether or not the United Nations Security Council resolution on extending the arms embargo against Iran is adopted by the United States, said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, President of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) Sayed Kazem Sajjadpur.
Earlier, the United States submitted to the UN Security Council a draft resolution on the extension of a special regime for the supply of weapons (arms embargo) against Iran, which expires this fall. According to the draft, the Security Council should decide that after the expiration of the measures introduced in resolution 2231, “all Member States should impede the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Iran through their territories or by their citizens, or by using their ships or aircraft weapons and related materials”.
“Our relations with Russia are on the right track. We will continue to work with Russia regardless of whether or not this resolution is adopted”, – Sajjadpur said after the 4th Russian-Iranian dialogue, organized with the participation of the Valdai international discussion club.
Sajjadpur noted that the US actions in relation to Iran in connection with the situation around the JCPOA are “illegal, unethical and irrational and go against all international standards”.
“We expect that Russia and China will reject these illegal US actions, and we expect support in this regard not only from Russia and China, but also from any reasonable member of the international community”, – said the representative of the Foreign Ministry.
Iran and the “six” of international negotiators reached an agreement in July 2015 to resolve the long-standing problem of the Iranian atom. The months-long negotiations culminated in the adoption of a joint comprehensive action plan (JCPOA), the implementation of which will completely remove Iran’s previously imposed economic and financial sanctions by the UN Security Council, the United States and the European Union. The agreement also provided that the arms embargo will be lifted from Iran within 5 years, arms deliveries are possible earlier, but only with the permission of the UN Security Council. The deal in its original form did not survive even three years: in May 2018, the United States announced a unilateral exit from it and the restoration of stringent sanctions against Tehran. Nevertheless, since only the United States formally withdrew from the deal, the rest of its participants must abide by the condition of lifting the arms embargo.