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US envoy renews push for extending arms embargo on Iran

Sunday, 28 June 2020 5:35 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 June 2020 5:37 PM ]

US Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, looks on during a briefing at the US Department of State, January 17, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

US special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, has reiterated Washington’s call for extending an expiring United Nations weapons embargo on the Islamic Republic.

Hook made the comments during a visit to the United Arab Emirates, a close US ally, as part of a Middle East tour on Sunday, saying the arms embargo on Tehran must remain in place and that the world should ignore what he described as Iran's threats to retaliate if the ban is extended.

The US official repeated his harsh and bogus claims against the Islamic Republic, saying Iran would become “the arms dealer of choice for rogue regimes and terrorist organizations around the world,” if the UN arms embargo set to expire in October was not extended.

The accusation comes as the United States, the biggest arms exporter in the world, has been supporting a devastating Saudi-led war in Yemen, which the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

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Hook also claimed that the import and export ban on Tehran, in place since 2006/2007, must remain in place to secure a wider Middle East.

"If we let it expire, you can be certain that what Iran has been doing in the dark, it will do in broad daylight and then some,” the US envoy further claimed.

Washington has stepped up calls for the extension of the UN arms embargo on Iran, which will expire in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

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