Iran: US steps to extend arms embargo ‘illegitimate’

Iran will have an “appropriate and decisive response” to the potential extension of the UN-arms embargo imposed on it, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Abbas Mousavi, said yesterday.

Speaking at a virtual press conference, Mousavi said the United States has no legal status in the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the world powers – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – after Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the agreement in 2018.

“Iran is not seeking to exit the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers … America’s move is illegitimate and our reaction will be proportionate,” Mousavi.

READ: Iran’s coronavirus death toll rises by 74 as mosques due to reopen

“We have informed our partners in the nuclear agreement that Iran will not tolerate Washington’s efforts to extend the arms embargo … Our response to the extension of the arms embargo will be appropriate and decisive,” he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that Washington was considering “every possibility” to renew the ban on selling conventional arms to Iran, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

Pompeo said the US administration is urging the three European signatories to the JCPOA “to take action which is within their capacity today”.