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QUESTION: Thanks so much. To Mr. Secretary first, the UN Security Council delivered a decisive “no” yesterday on a U.S. resolution to extend the arms embargo on Iran after two years of U.S. effort. Do you see any alternative to a full snapback of sanctions and will you take up the Russian call for a P5+1 meeting?

And to both ministers, you just signed a comprehensive defense agreement. It will take a lot of resources to build the infrastructure within that agreement, infrastructure that already exists within Germany. Why do you feel that Poland is in the best position to ward off Russia?

SECRETARY POMPEO: So as to your first question, there were two “no” votes precisely yesterday: Russia and China. It’s unsurprising that the Russians and the Chinese would like to sell weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is unfortunate that the French and the United Kingdom members of the P5 didn’t support what the Gulf states have demanded, what the Israelis have demanded for their own security – the people who know best the risks in the region. So I regret that deeply. I regret, too, that the whole world didn’t join against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror to ensure that they can’t have weapons systems that present risk – risk to the heart of Europe, air defense systems that will prevent the access we may need in the event that Iran should ultimately move on developing its own nuclear weapons program. This was a serious mistake. We regret that.

The United States simply wanted to extend the set of rules that have been in place since 2007, and as we have said before, the United States is determined to make sure that the Iranians and this regime – this theocratic regime – doesn’t have the capacity to inflict even more harm on the world. And so we’ll continue to work on that at the UN. We’ll continue to work diplomatically to try and achieve precisely the right outcome that I think the entire world understands. I think there are a lot of people, and I’ve heard it privately on this trip, that understand that it is not in the world’s best interests to allow this arms embargo to expire. I hope they will find the courage to say so publicly and assist us in ensuring this arms embargo is extended.

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