TEHRAN — Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations, has questioned Washington’s attempts to extend to UN arms embargo on Iran while at the same time sending enormous arms supplies to West Asia.

“The #US attempts to make arms #embargo against #Iran indefinite and comprehensive look extremely questionable in the light of US enormous arms supplies to the region,” Ulyanov tweeted on Monday.

“Whose policy in fact does lead to destabilisation of the situation in the Middle East?” he asked.

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

Under the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal, the arms embargo against Iran expires in October.

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.

Last week, Ulyanov criticized a tweet by the U.S. State Department on Iran.

The U.S. State Department’s tweet read, “The UN has maintained arms restrictions on Iran for 13 years. The resolution the U.S. has circulated would extend restrictions on Iran indefinitely. The restrictions should not be removed until Iran demonstrates a credible change in its behavior.”

In response, Ulyanov tweeted, “Would it entail a more responsible and less destabilising US policy of arms supplies to the Middle East amounting to astronomical figures?”

China has also voiced opposition to the anti-Iran move, urging Washington “to stop its illegal unilateral sanctions” on Iran.

In a statement to the UN Security Council, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent UN representative, said the root cause of the current crisis is the U.S withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the reimposition of unilateral sanctions against Iran, Xinhua reported.

“This has again undermined the joint efforts to preserve the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action],” Zhang said, referring to U.S. efforts to extend the arms embargo.

MH/PA