Iran: US suffers political defeat in UN Security Council

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called Washington's failure to have the UN arms embargo on Iran extended a "great political defeat."

In negotiations on Tuesday evening, the United Nations Security Council did not adopt a proposal by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to extend the embargo on conventional weapons.

"Last night in the Security Council, 14 countries opted for the Vienna agreement and UN Resolution 2231, which amounts to another great political defeat for the US," Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Pompeo had urged the Security Council to hold Iran accountable by indefinitely extending the arms embargo, which expires in October as part of the UN Resolution 2231.

"Iran will hold a sword of Damocles over the economic stability of the Middle East, endangering nations like Russia and China that rely on stable energy prices," Pompeo said.

China and Russia had signaled they would use their Security Council veto powers to oppose the US proposal.

The Iranian leadership has repeatedly threatened to leave the 2015 Vienna agreement on nuclear weapons as well as the nuclear non-proliferation treaty if the embargo was extended.

Germany shares Washington's misgivings about lifting the embargo in October.

During the Security Council meeting, German UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen emphasized the problematic human rights situation in Iran.

He added that Iran would nevertheless be barred from selling weapons to non-state actors even after the expiry of the embargo.

"Multilateralism is about commitments and reliability," Heusgen said, calling for the implementation of Resolution 2231 and the nuclear deal.