Finally, October 18, 2020, the day on which the UN’s arms embargo on Iran was supposed to end no later than five years after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is almost here, promoting the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to announce in a statement that, “From today, all restrictions on the transfer of weapons to and from the Islamic Republic of Iran as well as those restrictions on all related financial measures and services were terminated automatically.”
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said two days after the signing of JCPOA, that "Russia and China wanted to lift the arms embargo, but despite our support, the Iranian team itself agreed to extend the sanctions for five years,” we could have seen the lifting of the arms embargo on Iran much earlier if it weren’t for the Iranian negotiators who decided to delay it, but in any case, this has become one of the most important political issues in the world in recent days.
It should be noted that in the meantime, the Zionist regime, the United States, and their regional allies have made extensive efforts to further extend the arms embargo on Iran, and to this end, they used all their power and potential, as well as all their diplomatic channels, power and influence in various countries of the world and international organizations, and basically, they did not spare any effort to stop the UN from ending the embargo. Among their latest measures were drafting a resolution and submitting it to the Security Council calling for an indefinite extension of Iran's arms embargo, as well as efforts to activate a trigger mechanism to prevent Iran from entering the conventional arms market.
End of travel restrictions for 23 real and legal persons from Iran
Of course, October 18, 2020, is not only about the end to Iran's arms embargo; according to UN Resolution 2231, five years after the signing of Iran’s nuclear deal (JCPOA), in addition to lifting Iran's arms embargo, travel restrictions for 23 political and military Iranian officials will also be lifted.
Under this framework, these 23 individuals still face restrictions on their property in the United States and for conducting any transaction, which will be completely lifted in the eighth year after the JCPOA came into effect. Of course, it should be noted that Iranian political and military officials have no financial or commercial interactions in the United States or any financial deposits in American banks and financial institutions.
Iran arms embargo
Although it is said that the arms embargo on Iran has ended after 10 years, our people and soldiers witnessed the arms embargo and restrictions on the supply of weapons and defense equipment with their own eyes as the country was amid the Imposed War with Iraq not long after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. According to the commanders and officials of the country, during the Sacred Defense, Iran was denied the purchase of barbed wire, let alone weapons and military equipment.
The US launched an operation that later became known as "Operation Blockade,", with the aim of reducing Iran's military might, while the Iranians were engaged in defending their land and lives against the all-out invasion of the Iraqi Ba'athist army. The operation was part of the US diplomatic plan to prevent military equipment from reaching Iran, which was entrusted to the then US Deputy Secretary of State.
Former Secretary of State Shultz had said in this regard that pressure must be put on Iran to bring it to its knees while it was grappling with defending itself against Iraq’s invasion. “This effort could be indirect and through economic sanctions, such as a boycotting Iran's oil exports, or directly through arms embargoes against Iran,” he had said, thus putting Iran in dire straits to get its hands on military equipment.
Iran’s nuclear program: an excuse to intensify arms embargo
Although Iran was facing sanctions and restrictions on the supply of weapons and military equipment from the first days after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, as well as during and after the Imposed War, with the escalation of the country’s nuclear case, the intensification of restrictions and arms embargo on our country was again put on the enemies’ agenda. It began in early 2007 with Resolution 1747 under the pretext of Iran's nuclear activities, and later in subsequent resolutions, these sanctions were approved and expanded by Resolution 1929 in 2010.
These international arms restrictions and pressures continued until Iran and the other parties reached an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. The Iran nuclear deal with the P5 + 1 imposed restrictions on Iran in all respects, including one on arms sales. Although neither the JCPOA nor the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 define an arms embargo on Iran, the resolution states that Iran must obtain permission from the Security Council to purchase or sell any weapons.
Under one of the annexes to the JCPOA, all governments could participate in the sale of required arms or equipment and provide training to Iran and issue permits, provided that the Security Council had approved them on a case-by-case basis. This clause was applicable 5 years after the signing of the JCPOA or when the IAEA submitted a report confirming the wider conclusion - whichever occurred first.
The system of licensing the export and import of arms to and from Iran, which was one of the annexes to Resolution 2231, brought limitations and obstacles to our country, so much so that this licensing system came to be known as an arms embargo.
US efforts to extend Iran arms embargo
Towards the end of the deadline set by the UN Security Council for the lifting of Iran arms embargo, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been working hard since late last year to pull his country out of the JCPOA and put maximum pressure on Iran. Citing Security Council Resolution 2231, of which the JCPOA is also a part, and without mentioning the sale of billions of US weapons to Arab countries, Pompeo said that the end of the arms embargo on Iran would lead to in insecurity in West Asia.
Pompeo and Brian Hook have repeatedly called for immediate action to stop the lifting of the Iran arms embargo. White House leaders initially sought consensus in the Security Council to vote on a resolution extending Iran's arms embargo indefinitely.
Accordingly, US President Trump tried to invalidate Resolution 2231 by presenting a draft of a new resolution to the Security Council, but the UNSC members did not follow through. In this regard, the United States tried to extend the arms embargo on Iran by presenting a draft resolution, but this draft was not approved despite the extensive efforts and high costs paid by US leaders.
It was then that the US government announced that if the draft was not passed, it would declare itself a party to the JCPOA by means of Resolution 2231, and would implement the trigger mechanism, thus returning all UN sanctions under Chapter VII, including the arms embargo, on Iran.
In return, Iran recalled the unilateral and illegal withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA and stressed that Washington no longer had any right to the nuclear deal, saying it would retaliate if the US succeeded in restoring the arms embargo.
13 members of the Security Council, both permanent and non-permanent, wrote separate letters to the President of the Security Council denouncing the US action as illegal.
The repeated failures prompted the US, which was by now frustrated at the lack of international cooperation against Iran, to take unilateral action to put more pressure on Iran, including imposing sanctions on a number of military and nuclear officials, as well as 18 Iranian banks and financial institutions. These actions proved once again that active resistance can prevent the US from achieving its goals. This is an issue that the honorable nation of Iran has achieved for more than forty years with resistance and is a successful model for the freedom-loving nations of the world.
Iran’s official entry into the world’s arms market
The end of the arms embargo on Iran may mean for some that after years of restrictions and sanctions, the country can now enter the world’s military market and purchase highly advanced equipment and weapons, but a very important point to be made here is that the children of Islamic Iran, because of the country's years of defending itself under all the restrictions and sanctions that existed even during the eight-year Imposed War and beyond, have come to believe that no one will help us on this path. Therefore, with confidence and self-reliance, and by using the existing capacities, they have achieved very significant achievements that have not only met the existing needs of the country in these past forty years and led to an active and exemplary security deterrent for our country situated in the most critical region of the world, but it can also compete with the most advanced foreign models in the global market.
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