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Six Arab ask United Nations to extend arms embargo on Iran

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Six Arab Gulf countries sided with the US in sending a letter to the United Nations Saturday, asking for a continued arms embargo on Iran, the Washington Examiner reports. The embargo was scheduled to expire once the 2015 Iran deal comes into force.

In a statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said the letter was sent because: “It is imperative to extend those restrictions to ensure and preserve peace and stability in this region and the rest of the world.”

According to the Washington Examiner, the letter represents “a rare show of unity” from the GCC countries. “Iran has not ceased or desisted from armed interventions in neighboring countries, directly and through organizations and movements armed and trained by Iran,” the GCC said in a statement. “As such, it is inappropriate to lift the restrictions on conventional weapons’ movement to and from Iran until it abandons its destabilizing activities in the region and ceases to provide weapons to terrorist and sectarian organizations.”

It is anticipated that Russia and China will seek to block an extension. However, the US can renew the embargo unilaterally by invoking a nuclear deal provision that would cancel the agreement and renew all previous restrictions, the Washington Examiner says.

“The Security Council’s mission is to maintain ‘international peace and security.’ The Council would make an absolute mockery of that mission if it allowed the number-one state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell weapons freely,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week. “One way or another — one way or another, we will do the right thing. We will ensure that the arms embargo is extended.”