- The United States says Russia and China are blocking the sanctions committee's work to protect Iran.
- China and Russia fail to stop the discussion in the Security Council.
- All members should implement arms embargo against Iran: US envoy.
The United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia and China on Thursday over Iran's nuclear intentions, as Washington sought at the United Nations to further justify the war it launched against Iran two weeks ago.
At a meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, chaired by the United States this month, Russia and China moved unsuccessfully to block a discussion on a committee established to monitor and enforce U.N. sanctions on Iran.
They were annulled 11-2 and two abstentions.
Addressing the council, US envoy to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Moscow and Beijing of trying to protect Tehran by blocking the work of the so-called 1737 Committee.
“All United Nations member states should implement an arms embargo against Iran, ban the transfer and trade of missile technology, and freeze relevant financial assets,” Waltz said.
“The UN provisions that will be reimposed are not arbitrary, but are limited in scope to address the threat posed by Iran's nuclear, missile and conventional weapons programs and Iran's continued support for terrorism,” he said.
Waltz said that both China and Russia did not want a functional sanctions committee “because they want to protect their partner, Iran, and continue to maintain defense cooperation that is now again prohibited.”
Waltz noted that last week the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency had reiterated that Iran was the only non-nuclear weapon state in the world that had produced and stockpiled uranium enriched up to 60 percent, and had refused to provide the IAEA with access to this arsenal.
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, accused the United States and its allies of stoking “hysteria around alleged plans that Iran had to obtain a nuclear weapon” that were never corroborated by IAEA reports.
“This was done to launch another military adventure against Tehran and ensure a major escalation of the situation in the Middle East and beyond,” he said.
China's representative Fu Cong called Washington the “instigator” of the Iranian nuclear crisis and said it had “resorted to blatant use of force against Iran during the negotiation process, rendering diplomatic efforts futile.”
Iran's ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, told reporters later on Thursday that Iran's nuclear program “has always been exclusively peaceful” and that Tehran would not recognize any attempt to impose sanctions against it.
US President Donald Trump has used Iran's nuclear program to justify his war against Iran. This month he said Iran would have had a nuclear weapon within two weeks if the United States had not attacked three key nuclear sites in June, a claim that sources said was not supported by US intelligence assessments.
Britain and France told the Security Council that reimposing sanctions on Iran was justified by Tehran's failure to address concerns about its nuclear program.
France said the IAEA could no longer guarantee the peaceful nature of the program and that Tehran's nuclear arsenal was sufficient for 10 nuclear devices.
