The draft U.S. resolution on continuing the UN arms embargo on Iran failed to pass in the UN Security Council today. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while Washington and the Dominican Republic were the only yes votes. Before the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft vowed that the U.S. “will use the most important tool, whatever it is, whether it’s `snap back,’ whether it is hopefully just going into the council and extending this renewal, we will not take no for an answer.” She said the U.S. had circulated to council members a six-page memo from the U.S. State Department legal advisers outlining why the United States remains part of the 2015 Security Council resolution and still has the right to use the “snap back” provision.
Craft said council members face a choice between “sponsoring terrorism” or promoting international peace and security. “We have a moral responsibility to make certain that this murderous regime does not have access any longer to exporting and to arming its proxies,” Craft said. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said today that it was “nuts” to allow Iran to buy and sell weapons at will.
Following the vote, Caesar Pompeo issued a statement from on high: “The United Nations Security Council is charged with the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security. It failed today to uphold its fundamental mission set. It rejected a reasonable resolution to extend the 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran and 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. The Security Council’s failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable.”
