Iran Urges UN to Prevent the US From Extending Sanctions

Iran's President Hassan Rohani Wednesday urged members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to curb U.S. attempts to extend sanctions against his country.

Next October, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 nuclear deal popularly known as "The Arms Embargo", will be lifted as agreed in the UNSC resolution 2231.

Currently, however, the United States does not recognize this international agreement as it unilaterally withdrew from the pact two years ago.

"Since all sanctions against Iran will be lifted in October, the U.S. is angry and upset by this important day in the history of Iran's defense and intends to draft a resolution and bring it to the Security Council," Rohani denounced.

"Particularly, we expect Russia and China to resist the U.S. plot," he added.

The JCPOA was signed by the United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, Germany, the United States, and Iran. In 2018, the U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of this deal in order to impose new economic sanctions against Iran.

Initially, the signatory countries offered the Persian nation to lift their sanctions in exchange for Iran demonstrating that it is not developing nuclear weapons nor does it intend to do so.

In 2019, in response to U.S. arbitrary measures, Iran declared that it would break free of the commitments made in Vienna.

Despite the U.S. withdrawing from the 2015 Agreement, the Trump administration holds it has the right to impose sanctions because its country is mentioned in that international deal.

On May 15, Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov sent a letter to the United Nations noting that the U.S. interpretation is "ridiculous and irresponsible."

"Lavrov cited a 1971 International Court of Justice opinion, which found that a fundamental principle governing international relationships was that 'a party which disowns or does not fulfill its own obligations cannot be recognized as retaining the rights which it claims to derive from the relationship'," as reported by Reuters.