US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a news conference at the State Department in Washington, US, on August 5, 2020. (Reuters)
Washington’s efforts to get the United Nations Security Council to extend the Iran arms embargo failed Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, calling the result "inexcusable."
The UNSC voted on the US resolution, which was distributed to member states earlier in the week. China and Russia voted against the resolution, two countries voted for, and 11 member states abstained from casting a vote, the Security Council Presidency announced.
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The Security Council has now "paved the way for the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell conventional weapons without specific UN restrictions in place for the first time in over a decade," Pompeo said in a statement.
The @UN Security Council failed today to hold Iran accountable. It enabled the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell deadly weapons and ignored the demands of countries in the Middle East. America will continue to work to correct this mistake.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) August 14, 2020
Pompeo added that the US would never abandon its friends in the region who expected more from the Security Council. "We will continue to work to ensure that the theocratic terror regime does not have the freedom to purchase and sell weapons that threaten the heart of Europe, the Middle East and beyond," he said.
On Wednesday, as the draft was handed out, US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft said that it was "only common sense that the world’s #1 state sponsor of terror not be given the means of unleashing even greater harm on the world."
Craft said the US was "sickened, but not surprised" on Friday.
The @POTUS Trump administration works and speaks with total clarity on this issue. The United States will not abandon the region to Iranian terror and intimidation, and when we look for partners in that effort, we will look beyond the @UN Security Council. https://t.co/tUHmSqeuIU
— Ambassador Kelly Craft (@USAmbUN) August 14, 2020
Earlier Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed holding a seven-way online summit of the five permanent members of the UNSC together with Germany and Iran, to outline steps aimed at avoiding a confrontation over the Iran arms embargo.
In a Kremlin statement, Putin said discussions were becoming increasingly tense over the Iranian issue at the Security Council.
Read more:
Putin suggests seven-way virtual summit to avoid ‘confrontation’ over Iran
Pompeo discusses importance of Israel-UAE deal, Iran arms embargo in Vienna
- With Reuters
