France: Iran Violating Arms Embargo with Shipments to Syria
Iran has repeatedly violated a U.N. arms embargo with exports to protest-hit Syria, the French foreign ministry said on Monday, citing a U.N. group of experts.
"The U.N. panel of experts on Iran has identified and informed the Security Council of several violations of the embargo on arms to or from Iran set up by... the United Nations Security Council," said spokesman Romain Nadal.
"These arms deliveries are illegal and deeply shocking because they benefit a regime that has chosen a kind of repression that the U.N. rights council has repeatedly said constitutes 'crimes against humanity'," he said.
"We condemn these violations and call on Iran and Syria to comply with Security Council resolutions," Nadal said in response to a question about a U.S. accusation that Tehran was sending arms to Damascus.
Senior U.S. officials told Agence France Presse on Friday that Iran was supplying munitions to aid Syria's bloody protest crackdown in an initiative spearheaded by the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds force, Qasem Soleimani.
Iran is forbidden to import or export weapons or ammunition under the terms of U.N. Security Council resolutions dating from 2007 and 2010 slapped on the Islamic republic because of its controversial nuclear program.
Source: Agence France Presse
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