Saudi Arabia renews calls for Iran arms embargo extension

Cairo: Saudi Arabia has warned that lifting a UN arms embargo will spell dire consequences for the region.

On Friday, the UN Security Council turned down a US proposal to extend the embargo, which is set to expire in mid-October.

Saudi Arabia has called for extending the 13-year-old embargo. At an online cabinet meeting headed by King Salman, Saudi Arabia renewed the call for extending the embargo.

“The kingdom emphasizes that lifting the international embargo on Iran regarding all types of weapons will lead to more destruction and havoc, and will further stoke the scale of conflicts in the region,” the cabinet said, according to the Saudi news agency SPA.

The embargo was imposed in 2007. But under a 2015 nuclear deal struck between world powers and Tehran preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, it was agreed to end the embargo in October 2020.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, which his administration has repeatedly accused of being the prime sponsor of terrorism in the world.

Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia accused Iran of meddling in their internal affairs and manipulating proxies to destabilise the region.