Sen. Cruz: Fecklessness of Our European Allies Has Left United States With One Option Only To Prevent Expiration of the Arms Embargo; Time To Invoke the Snapback Mechanism

HOUSTON, Texas - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) issued the following statement after the United Nations Security Council did not pass a resolution put forward by the Trump administration to prevent the expiration of the United Nations arms embargo on Iran:

"Last week our European allies Britain, Germany, and France had a choice: to stand with the United States or to stand with Russia, China, and Iran's ‘Death to America' regime.

"In just a few weeks, because of the catastrophic Obama-Biden Iran nuclear deal, the United Nations arms embargo on Iran will expire, allowing Russia and China to start selling billions of dollars of weapons to Iran. There is a bipartisan, bicameral, and interbranch consensus across the entire United States government against allowing that to happen. Over the last several months over four hundred Senators and Representatives signed various letters and resolutions calling for an extension of the arms embargo. On Friday the US ambassador to the United Nations proposed a Security Council resolution that would have done just that. Russia and China had already promised to veto the resolution, and duly objected. Our European allies refused to take sides.

"The fecklessness of our European allies has left the United States with one option, and one option only, to prevent an expiration of the arms embargo. It's time for the United States to finally and irreversibly end what remains of the disastrous deal and the benefits that Iran gets from it by invoking the snapback mechanism described in the deal's United Nations resolution."

In his new op-ed in Newsweek, Sen. Cruz praised the Trump administration for taking steps to prevent the expiration of the arms embargo against Iran and made clear the time is now to invoke the snapback mechanism in UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2231, writing:

"President Trump and his administration did everything they could to avoid a showdown over the arms embargo, including mobilizing a coalition to advocate for last week's resolution. The administration is now rightly moving to invoke the snapback mechanism. [...]

"Having exhausted every other measure to stop Iran from receiving billions of dollars of weapons starting in October, the Trump administration is going back to the UN to put an end to the benefits Iran is receiving from the Iran deal. We can go there tomorrow to begin the process, we should do so and, very soon, we will do so."

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Cruz is leading efforts in the Senate to finally shred the catastrophic Obama-Iran nuclear deal, including:

• Introduced bipartisan legislation to impose sanctions on those who use civilians as human shields, including terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their enablers.
• Introducing legislation with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) dismantle a key remaining part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in response to the Trump administration's repeated issuance of waivers for civil nuclear projects contemplated by the deal.
• Urging President Trump to end remaining civil waivers stemming from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) following Iran's announcement that it will no longer be bound by the terms of the Obama-Iran deal.

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