Tehran 0
15 July 2020

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contended that “virtually everyone agrees that the [UN] arms embargo [on Iran] should be extended. Our European counterparts too are very concerned about what will happen if the arms embargo itself expires on October 18th of this year. And so there’s enormous consensus around the objective. How to achieve that objective, there’s different views on”. Pompeo added that “we’ve made clear to – both publicly and in private to all the members of the Security Council – we intend to ensure that this arms embargo continues. We hope that this can be done by a UN Security Council resolution… But in the event that that’s not the case we are still going to do everything in our power to achieve that, and we think we’ll be successful ultimately in doing that”. Pompeo went on to warn that “work between Iran and Chinese Communist Party may well commence rapidly and robustly on 19 October if we’re not successful at extending the UN embargo”. In related remarks, President Rouhani asserted that “with the vigilance of countries, especially the P4+1 member states, regarding the end of the arms embargo on Iran, the U.S. will fail to advance its political and legal actions against Tehran”.

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