GCC calls for extension of UN arms embargo on Iran
The GCC called on the UN to extend an international arms embargo on Iran.
The secretariat of the GCC, made up of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, said in a letter to the UN Security Council that Iran’s continued interference in neighbouring countries made an extension necessary.
The GCC said that Iran “has continued to proliferate weapons across the region as an integral part of its expansionist regional policy and long-standing interference in the internal affairs of Arab states, including GCC member states, in clear violation of the UN Charter”.
“It is inappropriate to lift restrictions on the supply of weapons from and to Iran until Iran gives up its destabilising activities in the region and stops supplying terrorist and sectarian organisations with weapons,” said the letter sent by Secretary General Nayef Al Hajraf.
The arms embargo on Iran is set to end on October 18 under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Washington quit in 2018.
The letter to the UN is a show of unity from the GCC. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed political, trade and transport ties with Qatar over its support for extremists.
The GCC called on the Security Council to “further impose any additional measures necessary to prevent the destabilising proliferation of Iranian weapons, such as a targeted asset freeze and travel ban on individuals involved in the supply, sale or transfer of arms or related materiel to or from Iran”.
The bloc’s call comes after recent visits to the region by departing US special representative for Iran Brian Hook, who told The National in June that it was “very important that the region speaks with one voice to call on the UN Security Council to extend the embargo”.
The UN in 2010 banned Iran from buying major foreign weapon systems, amid concern about its nuclear programme.
If the US is unsuccessful in extending the embargo, it has threatened to trigger a return of all UN sanctions against Iran under a process agreed to in the 2015 deal.
The US-drafted resolution needs at least nine votes in favour to force Russia and China to use their vetoes, which Moscow and Beijing have signalled they will do. But some diplomats question whether Washington can secure those nine.