The United States submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Iran after it expires next October, while Tehran has confirmed that it will not abide by it. 

On Tuesday, Washington distributed the draft resolution to France, Britain and Germany, all of which are signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the major powers.

US diplomats said Washington plans to submit the project to a vote in May, when Estonia, a member of NATO, will take over the presidency of the Security Council.

However, US officials and diplomats in New York expected that Russia and China would oppose the US draft, as Moscow and Beijing do not hide their desire to resume the export of conventional weapons to Tehran when the current embargo stipulated in the 2015 nuclear agreement ends.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said today that his country will not allow Iran to purchase conventional weapons systems when the embargo is lifted.

Pompeo added that the United States will work with the Security Council to extend the embargo, and that if it is unable to persuade other countries to do so, it will assess all possibilities to do so.

For its part, the French Foreign Ministry said today that the European Union will continue to ban the sale of conventional arms to Iran in accordance with the nuclear agreement that the United States withdrew in 2018.

The ministry added that the lifting of the UN arms embargo on Iran would have major repercussions for stability, as she put it.

Pompeo said his country would not allow Iran to buy weapons after the embargo was lifted (Reuters)

Iran is challenging

On the other hand, the secretary of the Expediency Council in Iran Mohsen Rezaei said today that the international arms embargo imposed on Iran will end soon, and that no one can then prevent his country from acquiring conventional weapons.

In statements to Al Jazeera, Rezaei added that the position of the United States and the European Union on lifting the arms embargo is not binding on Iran, and that Tehran will not abide by it.

He also stressed that his country will not start any war with the United States, and that the end of any war that Washington may start will be with an Iranian decision.

The Iranian official said that the US bases in the region are monitored, and that Iran would strike it with missiles if its national security was threatened.

For his part, Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations, Majeed Takht Rawanji, said that the American efforts to extend the arms embargo against Iran are against UN Resolution 2231.

He added that the Americans have come to the Middle East from their country, which is thousands of miles away, and it is better for them to leave the region as soon as possible.

Iranian media quoted Rawanji as saying that the Americans know very well that the Iranians do not fear arrogance or bullying.

The Iranian delegate described the new Washington project to return to the nuclear agreement as a historical satire that might be presented at the United Nations.