Iran Press/America: The expiration of the decade-old UN restrictions, set to take place Sunday, would come after an unsuccessful US campaign to convince countries to defy the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the accompanying UN Security Council resolution 2231 to extend the ban on Iran's arms industry.
With Washington's calls to the UN left unheeded, Iran's permanent mission to the international body said the lack of support for the US initiatives was telling of its position vis-à-vis the international community.
"It is abundantly clear that the UN—and the overwhelming majority of its member states—reject the US' so-called maximum pressure policy on Iran," Iranian UN Mission Spokesperson Alireza Miryousefi told Newsweek, "and that its attempts to even further violate the JCPOA and UNSCR 2231 have led to its isolation."
Iran has yet to formally announce any specific country arms deals. Officials, however, have repeatedly discussed the prospect of doing business with US rivals Russia and China, who have been vocally critical of President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against the Iranian nation.
Asked if Tehran had any particular nations in mind, Miryousefi said his country had options beginning on Sunday.
"Iran has many friends and trading partners, and has a robust domestic arms industry to ensure its defense requirements against foreign aggression," he told Newsweek. "In accordance with the timeline stated in resolution 2231, Iran will be relieved from arms restrictions as early as Oct. 18. Naturally, from that date, we'll trade, on the basis of our national interests, with other countries in this field."
Though the US joined Iran along with China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom in 2015 to forge the JCPOA, better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018. Since then, the US has rolled out increasingly severe sanctions to exert the “maximum pressure” against the Iranian nation.
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