U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to "hold Iran accountable” and extend an arms embargo due to expire in October.

"Renewing the embargo will exert more pressure on Tehran to start to behave like a normal nation,” Pompeo told a virtual meeting of the council that is held twice a year to review implementation of the resolution endorsing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "The world needs this to happen. The long-suffering Iranian people need it to happen."

President Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – or JCPOA as the deal is commonly known – in May 2018 and reimposed all U.S. sanctions that had been lifted or waived under the agreement. In response, 14 months later, Iran began taking a series of steps to cease carrying out its nuclear commitments.

In January, Tehran said it had taken its final step back from the deal and would no longer abide by limits on the numbers of its uranium-enriched centrifuges.

The Trump administration has threatened to trigger a "snapback” of all international sanctions if its effort to extend the arms embargo fails in the Security Council.

Pompeo detailed what he said is "overwhelming evidence” that Iran is a threat to international peace, including reminding council members of Iranian-made weapons used in an attack on Saudi Arabia in September, missile attacks on coalition troops in Iraq in January, and its supplying of rockets and other hardware to Shiite groups in the Middle East.

Source : VOA