O n October 18, Iran announced about the end of the UN embargo, with which President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the Iranian people, stressing that from now on they will be able to sell and buy arms from anyone they wish. 

The arms embargo on Iran entered into force more than 13 years ago, when the negotiations with the UN Security Council on the “nuclear package” failed, as a result of which Security Council imposed embargo on Iran between 2006-2007, which was tightened in 2008 and 2010.  After numerous negotiations, in 2015, the famous nuclear deal was signed between Tehran and the six international negotiators: Great Britain, Germany, China, Russia, the USA and France, which was an important achievement for Iran. According to this deal, the UN inspectors were given the right to visit Iran’s military and scientific centers, however, the Iranian side wasn’t obliged to allow this visits immediately and could demand additional clarifications, in the case of which the issue had to be discussed by the joint commission of experts from Iran and from the six superpowers. Besides, Tehran was obliged to maintain uranium enrichment level at 3,67% for 15 years. In case of the full implementation of the agreement, the sanctions on Iran’s Intercontinental ballistic missile program will remain in force for 8 years (2023), and the UN arms embargo on Iran for 5 years (2020). In case of not fulfilling one of the obligations, the UN will restore the lifted sanctions within 65 days.

After the deal, however, in October 2017, the US President Donald Trump stated that this cooperation didn’t suit the interests of his country. In 2018, based on some sources, Washington withdrew from the deal because of the long-range ballistic missile program of Iran and it threatened to impose sanctions on all those countries who would try to help Iran to get nuclear weapons. In response to it, in 2019, Iran accused the members of the deal of the US withdrawing the deal and of imposing sanctions, by stopping to maintain the uranium enrichment level.

Although the transaction scenario developed in such ways, the embargo was lifted on October 18. In August, the United States made its last effort to extend it. Washington submitted a resolution to the UN extending the arms embargo on Iran, however the members of the Security Council rejected it. Not reaching any results, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that by this the Security Council refused to stand for “peace and security” and “opened the way for the world's largest terrorist sponsor country to sell and buy weapons”.

The United States is especially concerned with the fact that Iran will be able to acquire fighters such as the Russian Su-30 and Chinese J-10. Russia and China didn’t hide that they were going to run negotiations on arms sales with Iran. In August, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Khatami visited Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu. He also attended “The Army-2020” forum, where he got acquainted with the latest models of Russian weapons and military equipment. After the meeting, Khatami noted that agreements on cooperation in the development of the Iranian air force were reached between Tehran and Moscow.

After the end of embargo, Iran stressed that there is no place for non-traditional and mass destruction weapons in its defense system, however, this didn’t calm the US. The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected the expiration of embargo, noting that the United States is ready to impose sanctions on any individual or entity, who will contribute to the supply, sale or transfer of conventional arms to or from Iran, as well as those who provide technical knowledge, financial support and services, and other assistance related to these arms.