TEHRAN - China has said the United States has “no right” to extend arms embargo on Iran “let alone to trigger” a return of all UN sanctions on Tehran.

“It has no right to extend an arms embargo on Iran, let alone to trigger snapback,” China’s UN mission wrote in a tweet on Thursday.

“Maintaining [the] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the only right way moving forward,” it added.

The United States has stepped up calls for the extension of a UN arms embargo on Iran since April.

Under the UN Security Council’s 2231 resolution, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal, the arms embargo expires in October.

The U.S. President Donald Trump administration has threatened that it may seek to trigger a snapback of all sanctions on Iran if its attempts to extend the arms embargo fail.

‘U.S. seeks to blackmail UNSC member states’

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, has said that it looks like the U.S. attempts to blackmail the UN Security Council members.

“Looks like an attempt to blackmail the UNSC Member States. US position on arms embargo against #Iran and #SnapBack is very weak not only from the viewpoint of common sense but also in legal terms,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

His comments came as Richard Goldberg, a political advisor and aide to the U.S. National Security tweeted on Thursday that “the UN Security Council must extend the arms embargo against Iran. If it won’t, the U.S. is prepared to ‘snap back’ sanctions, writes Brian H. Hook, U.S. special representative for Iran.”

‘U.S. plans to impose indefinite arms embargo on Iran have no prospects’

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Washington’s plans to introduce an indefinite arms embargo against Iran have no prospects.

“The stubborn shattering of the JCPOA through new anti-Iranian ideas, which include the proposal to impose an indefinite arms embargo against Iran, simply does not honor the United States. It is clear that this course has no prospects,” Zakharova said at a briefing, Sputnik reported.

Those members of the JCPOA, who have maintained a genuine full commitment to the nuclear deal, will continue to fight for its preservation and sustainable implementation, she said.

“There should be no doubt about this in Washington,” she asserted.

NA/PA