Iran: Arms Trade

(asked on 9th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what mechanisms are in place to prevent the UN conventional arms embargo on Iran from expiring in October 2020.


Answered by
James Cleverly Portrait
James Cleverly
Home Secretary
This question was answered on 17th June 2020

The UK remains committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), a reciprocal deal that lifts sanctions in exchange for tough nuclear limits. Iran has broken the nuclear limits in the JCPoA and we are working to bring Iran back into compliance through the deal's Dispute Resolution Mechanism.

UNSCR 2231, which underpins the JCPoA, includes a number of clauses designed to allow sanctions to expire on fixed dates: the UN conventional arms embargo is due to expire in October 2020. We are consulting partners on the implications of the expiry of the UN arms embargo for Iran and wider regional security. We note that other sanctions regimes will remain in force, such as UNSCRs 1540, 1701, and 2216 which prohibit the proliferation of weapons to Lebanese Hizballah and the Houthis. The UK encourages all states to implement national export control best practice in support of these regimes. The EU arms embargo and UN ballistic missile restrictions on Iran will also remain in place until 2023.

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