“It is about safeguarding international law and multilateralism,” Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said in reference to the October expiry of an Iran arms embargo, as set in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as well as UN Resolution 2231.

Rouhani’s televised July 15 address came as the United States was in the middle of an intense and challenging campaign to get the UN Security Council to vote on extending the embargo. The Islamic Republic has been working relentlessly to counterbalance the US push by seeking support from the remaining JCPOA signatories, China and Russia in particular. In the opening of a series of US-called Security Council meetings on the matter in late June, the members emphasized the need to preserve the JCPOA.

The Iranian president advised the 4+1 countries (China, Russia, UK, France and Germany) to resist the US pressure because “it’s not just about their ties with Tehran” and said failure to stop an extension “will devalue international treaties … leaving all sides at loss.” According to Rouhani, Washington will face “yet another defeat” in its political and legal war against Tehran should the 4+1 nations act with “vigilance.”

Rouhani’s speech came on the fifth anniversary of the signing of the nuclear deal, and he used the chance to renew attacks on the US government for its “illegal” withdrawal from the pact in May 2018, a decision he blamed “on Zionists [the Israeli government], reactionaries and hard-liners in America.”