Iran yesterday said a longstanding UN embargo on arms sales to and from the Islamic republic expired yesterday in line with a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers from which Washington has withdrawn.
Tehran, which could now purchase weapons from Russia, China and elsewhere, has hailed the development as a diplomatic victory over the US, which had tried to maintain an indefinite freeze on arms sales.
“As of today, all restrictions on the transfer of arms, related activities and financial services to and from the Islamic Republic of Iran ... are all automatically terminated,” the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
The embargo on the sale of conventional arms to Iran was due to start expiring progressively from yesterday, under the terms of the UN resolution that blessed the 2015 nuclear deal.
“As of today, the Islamic Republic may procure any necessary arms and equipment from any source without any legal restrictions, and solely based on its defensive needs,” the ministry added in the statement sent out on Twitter.
It insisted that under the terms of the deal, struck with the US, China, Britain, France, Germany and Russia, “the lifting of arms restrictions and the travel ban were designed to be automatic with no other action required.”
It was “a momentous day for the international community,” the ministry said yesterday, adding the world had stood with Tehran “in defiance of the US regime’s efforts.”
However, it stressed that “unconventional arms, weapons of mass destruction and a buying spree of conventional arms have no place in Iran’s defense doctrine.”
Iran urged the US to “abandon its destructive approach vis-a-vis Resolution 2231,” adding that US attempts to “violate” the resolution had been “categorically rejected several times in the past three months by the Security Council.”
The statement added that in the case of measures amounting to a “material breach of the resolution and the purposes” of the deal, Iran “reserves the right to take any necessary countermeasures to secure its national interests.”
Moscow said in September that it was ready to boost its military cooperation with Tehran, while Beijing has also spoken of its willingness to sell arms to Iran following the expiration of the embargo.
The UN banned Iran from buying major foreign weapon systems in 2010 amid tensions over its nuclear program. An earlier embargo targeted Iranian arms exports
The US Defense Intelligence Agency last year predicted that if the embargo ended, Iran would likely try to purchase Russian Su-30 fighter jets, Yak-130 trainer aircraft and T-90 tanks, and might try to buy its S-400 anti-aircraft missile system and its Bastian coastal defense missile system.
Yesterday also marked the end of UN travel bans on a number of Iranian military and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard members.
Additional reporting by AP
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