“We have great hopes that America will fail,” Rouhani told a televised meeting of his cabinet on Wednesday.

“We have great hopes that America will realize its failure and see its isolation,” the president said.

The ban on selling weapons to Iran is set to be progressively eased from October under the terms of Resolution 2231, which blessed the Iran nuclear deal that world powers agreed in July 2015. But a UN embargo on materials and technology that Iran could use for its ballistic missile program is to remain in place until 2023.

Under the accord officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran is committed to limiting its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The JCPOA has been on life support since the US withdrew from it and reimposed unilateral sanctions in 2018. Iran has since taken small steps away from compliance with the agreement in retaliation for the US withdrawal as it presses for the sanctions relief it was promised.

“But our stance in any case is clear. If such a resolution comes to pass… it means a blatant violation of the JCPOA,” Rouhani said, warning the “consequences will rest with the perpetrators of this act,” Rouhani said.

“Until today, the US has failed politically, and it will fail again. The United States cannot attract and convince the world’s public opinion, and the world now feels that Iran is a law-abiding and moral country that is committed to its obligations,” he said.

‘No legal position’

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US seeks to “use a Security Council mechanism to destroy” the top body.

The United States has put forward a resolution to extend the embargo but faces opposition from veto-wielding Russia and China.

The three European allies of the United States – Britain, Germany and France, which along with Russia and China, are parties to the JCPOA – have voiced support for extending the conventional arms embargo but their priority is to preserve the nuclear deal.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned of a return of UN sanctions on Iran, using the so-called “snapback mechanism” under the JCPOA if the Security Council fails to extend the embargo.

He has said that Washington “has the unilateral ability to snap back sanctions into place” despite leaving the Iran nuclear deal.

But Zarif rejected Pompeo’s claim, saying the US “has no legal position to use the snapback”.

He said even the three European allies of the United States also explicitly stated at a previous meeting of the UN Security Council that Washington could not use this mechanism.

Zarif called US draft resolution “very illegal” and said it will not be approved.

“If the United States triggers the snapback, it will have no legal value, and any result from this snapback will be deemed worthless and will have no effect,” the top diplomat pointed out.

Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Wednesday that the US “was forced to retreat” from its draft resolution after being “rebuffed by UNSC members” and had to propose a fresh version.

“The new draft is similar – in its NATURE and GOAL – to the previous. Confident that the council will – again – reject this move,” he tweeted.

The original US text effectively called for an indefinite extension of the embargo on Iran and used hawkish rhetoric.

Washington has threatened to use a contested argument that it remains a “participant” in the JCPOA – despite its withdrawal – and if UN sanctions are not extended, it can force their return if it sees Iran as being in violation of the accord’s terms.

AFP and Press TV contributed to this story.

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“Members of the Security Council are facing a great test to show the independence of their vote,” Seyyed Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff of Iran’s president, tweeted.

Vaezi urged the council to “react negatively to US pressure to impose its will on Iran”.

He said Washington’s push to keep the UN arms embargo on Tehran in place violates a UN Security Council resolution that endorses a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Iranian official warned that the extension of the embargo could result in the collapse of the nuclear deal.

The arms embargo is currently set to end on Oct. 18 under UNSC Resolution 2231 as part of the JCPOA, which the United States quit in 2018.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that the UN Security Council will vote this week on the US bid, despite warnings by some diplomats that the measure lacks support.

If the United States is unsuccessful in extending the embargo, it has threatened to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran under a process agreed in the JCPOA.

In May, President Hassan Rouhani warned that Tehran will give a “crushing response” if the embargo on Iranian trade of conventional arms was extended.

Rejecting US ‘bullying’

Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Majid Takht-Ravanchi also took to Twitter on Monday to criticize the US for “actively resorting to Iran-phobia & coercion” at the UN Security Council “to gain support for its unlawful anti-2231 resolution” bid.

Takht-Ravanchi said the US is “illegally seeking” to extend the arms embargo and urged the Security Council to “reject bullying & unilateralism” again “as it did when [the] US first introduced its draft”.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday said the US bid represents a threat against the Security Council and its workings more than constituting a threat against the Islamic Republic.

“The Americans are seeking to use the Security Council to weaken and destroy it and are after subjugating the body,” ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi told a press conference in Tehran.

He, however, said the Islamic Republic believes Washington’s bid has little chance of success and hoped that the effort will be defeated as a result of “independent countries’ alertness and wisdom.”

‘Irresponsible’ call

Mousavi on Sunday strongly criticized the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council for its “irresponsible” call on the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo.

He said the six-member council has issued a “unilateral and dictated” statement while some of its members are among the biggest purchasers of Western arms in spite of grappling with economic problems.

Regretting “the unproductive approach taken by some of the members” of the Arab council, Mousavi added, “Unfortunately, it appears the so-called Persian Gulf Cooperation Council has become the representative of certain narrow-minded members inside the council or outside the region and its secretariat influenced by wrong and destructive policies and behaviors of some of its members has turned into the mouthpiece of anti-Iran hawks.”

The Arab council “has reached its inefficiency climax,” the spokesman said, adding the council has become useless due to its “internal divisions and unrealistic policies and its recent move indicated that it has ignored regional realities and turned a blind eye to the regional realities and priorities under current sensitive circumstances.”

Reuters and Press TV contributed to this story.

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