Saudi Arabia and US call for extension of arms embargo to Iran

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and the United States' special representative to Iran, Brian Hook, on Monday called on the international community to extend the UN embargo on arms sales to this nation, the Arab News newspaper reported on Tuesday. The ban on arms sales to the ayatollahs' regime was imposed 13 years ago and expires next October. At a joint press conference in Riyadh, Al-Jubeir said that Saudi and US foreign policy towards Tehran is the same. "We both see this country as a serious danger, not only to regional stability, but also to international stability. It is the main financier of terrorism. The international community needs to be more assertive in its dealings with the Iranians," the Saudi foreign official said. 

The embargo, adopted under UN Resolution 1747, tightened sanctions in response to Tehran's refusal to halt its nuclear programme, prohibiting Iran from moving conventional weapons beyond its borders. The Arab Coalition has shown weapons, including drones and missiles, believed to have been supplied by Iran to Hutu militias in Yemen, which were used in cross-border attacks on Saudi cities. 

The Hutus, an Iranian-backed armed group, have carried out 1,659 attacks against Saudi Arabia in the past five years. They have used a variety of weapons, including 318 ballistic missiles, 371 drones, 64 explosive vessels and 153 naval mines. The attacks are aimed at threatening and attacking civilians, damaging the world economy and disrupting navigation, in violation of international and community law, according to the coalition. 

Al-Jubeir has said that Tehran continues to supply arms to terrorist groups despite the embargo, and if it is lifted, Iran will become even more aggressive and disruptive. The US envoy agreed with Al-Jubeir: "The weapons we see here today are all the evidence we need that the embargo against Iran should not be lifted. We need to ensure that Tehran finds it more difficult to spread deadly weapons".

"This is a fraction of the kind of deadly weapons that have reached not only Saudi Arabia but the entire Middle East, so this is the right time for the UN Security Council to do the right and necessary thing. Both officials agreed that the international community must put strong pressure on Tehran to comply with international law, stop supporting terrorism, deal with criminal organizations and drug cartels and stop killing innocent people. "We both want Iran to be a normal country that lives in the international community the way other countries do, that respects international law and the sovereignty of other states, that does not interfere in their internal affairs, and that (stops) their ballistic missile and terrorism programmes," Al-Jubeir has called for.