TEHRAN — The 2015 nuclear agreement will have no chance to survive if the United States insists on extending the arms embargo on Iran, Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali has said.

The UN Security Council Resolution 2231 clarifies that arms sanctions against Iran are lifted in October, but the U.S. announced they would not comply with this resolution, Jalali said, according to Tass.

They have recently initiated a meeting of the UN Security Council with the goal of creating the prerequisites for the extension of arms embargo on Iran, he added.

The ambassador also expressed gratitude to Russia for opposing the IAEA resolution crafted by the UK, France, and Germany which demands Iran to provide access to two sites with the alleged storage of undeclared nuclear material.

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

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.

Russia warned last week that the extension of arms embargo will jeopardize efforts to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA.

“The United States’ push was not only unjustified but also counterproductive in terms of the prospects of preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on July 2.

In a letter to the United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council circulated on June 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Trump administration of unleashing a politically motivated campaign against Iran and called for “universal condemnation” of the U.S. attempts.

The Russian foreign minister said the United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers and now has no legal right to try to use the UN resolution endorsing the deal to indefinitely continue the arms embargo.

MH/PA