Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution blocking a draft resolution by Britain condemning Iran for not blocking the flow of Iranian weapons to Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels.
The UN then unanimously approved the rival, Russian draft resolution, which, without any reference to Tehran, extends targeted sanctions against Yemen - the poorest country in the Arab world, where the proxy war continues unabated. Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The effect of the arms embargo and the remaining sanctions against Yemen, which have been in force since 2015, expired on Monday.
The Russian veto and the approval of the Russian draft decision were interpreted by analysts as a double defeat for the US diplomacy, which for months has been exerting increasing pressure on UN meetings and corridors to blame Tehran, while at the same time threatening, and continuing to threatens to pull out of the 2015 agreement on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program if its "catastrophic" "defects" for Washington are not "corrected".
The British diplomacy, which drafted the decision in consultation with the United States and France, initially sought to condemn Iran for violating the arms embargo imposed on Yemeni Shiite rebel leaders and at the same time reiterated the UN UN commitment. action would be taken on the issue.
A later version of the plan lifted Tehran's condemnation and simply raised concerns because UN monitoring experts said Iran was likely to violate the embargo by leaving missiles and remote-controlled drones on the drones.
11 Member States supported the British plan, 2 voted against - Bolivia and Russia, which at the same time exercised its veto - and two abstained (China, Kazakhstan). In order for a draft decision to be adopted, it needs to receive nine votes and not be vetoed by any of the five permanent members of the SA (USA, Russia, China, France, UK).
The Russian plan, which simply provides for the extension of sanctions, was adopted unanimously.
Noting that there could be no "consensus" on the British draft decision, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia stressed that there was "no evidence" of the allegations made by the United States and Saudi Arabia, which were made in particular by the American Nicki Haley, that Iran was actually behind the Houthi ballistic missile launches against Saudi Arabia in 2017.
Unlike the United States, Britain, France and Germany, Tehran does supply the Houthis with missiles, so they have very serious responsibilities for these attacks. "There is no doubt about it," a European diplomat told AFP, but declined to comment further when asked about the evidence.
