TEHRAN — The United States is trying to distract world attention from its economic terrorism waged against the people of Iran, says Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“Yet another attempt by US to distract from its continued #EconomicTerrorism on the Iranian people: this time, US is calling on #UNSC to violate its very resolution 2231, and continue arms restrictions on Iran,” Majid Takh-Ravanchi tweeted on Sunday.

“But US will not succeed in wooing others to violate int'l law,” Takht-Ravanchi added.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday urged the United Nations Security Council to extend the international arms embargo on Iran.

Repeating Washington’s unfounded claims, Pompeo said lifting the sanctions imposed on Tehran may give rise to violence in the Middle East.

“The arms embargo on Iran – the world’s leading state sponsor of terror – expires six months from today. The UN Security Council (UNSC) must extend the embargo before Iran’s violence escalates and they start a new arms race in the Middle East. The clock is ticking,” Pompeo claimed in a tweet.

“In the last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles at its neighbors, mined and captured oil tankers, smuggled weapons into conflict zones, and shot down a civilian passenger jet. We can’t risk Iran buying more advanced weapons and transferring their arsenal to irresponsible actors,” he added.

Russia also reacted to Pompeo’s remark and ruled out the possibility of renewing the arms embargo against Iran.

“Usually an arms race is not unilateral. It is a collective endeavor even at level of great powers or in regional & subregional context. A risk of arms race can hardly be removed through arms embargo against one country. This task requires collective efforts through negotiations,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to the IAEA Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted on Saturday.

Under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. abandoned in May 2018, a UN ban on weapons sales to Tehran will end in October 2020.

In December 2019, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran intends to stay in the nuclear deal despite the U.S. actions, arguing that the internationally-endorsed pact will be put to good use in 2020 when the arms embargo comes to an end.

MH/PA