US revises UN resolution to extend UN arms embargo on Iran

UD/IRAN The United States circulated a revised resolution that would extend a UN arms embargo on Iran indefinitely, seeking to gain more support in the 15-member Security Council where veto-wielding Russia and China have voiced strong opposition. US Ambassador Kelly Craft said the new draft “takes council views into account and simply does what everyone knows should be done - extend the arms embargo to prevent Iran from freely buying and selling conventional weapons”. “It is 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,” she said in a statement.

Iran said on Wednesday the move showed the US was “forced to retreat” from its original resolution and predicted its new arms embargo push would fail at the Security Council. “This is a very illegal resolution and in fact it uses the Security Council mechanisms to destroy the Security Council. I’m confident that this resolution will be rejected too,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters in Tehran. Council diplomats said the revised draft could be put in a final form on Thursday and put to a vote Friday. The revised draft, obtained by The Associated Press, is just four paragraphs and replaces the original seven-page, 35-paragraph draft circulated in June. The original draft included several provisions that some diplomats objected to as going beyond the extension of the arms embargo and were eliminated.

One provision in the original resolution would have authorised all UN member states to inspect cargo entering or transiting through their territory at airports, seaports, and free trade zones from Iran or heading there, if the member state had “reasonable grounds to believe the cargo”contained banned items. (Al Jazeera)