NEW YORK — The UN Security Council on Friday rejected the United States' calls for an indefinite extension to the arms embargo on Iran, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"The Security Council's failure to act decisively in defense of international peace and security is inexcusable," Pompeo said ahead of the council announcing the results of the vote.

Expressing his disappointment later on Twitter, Pompeo said: “The @UN Security Council failed today to hold Iran accountable. It enabled the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism to buy and sell deadly weapons and ignored the demands of countries in the Middle East. America will continue to work to correct this mistake.”

The main opponents of the US-sponsored resolution were China and Russia.

The embargo on Iran is scheduled to end in October this year, under a provision of UN Resolution 2231, in which the Security Council backed the nuclear deal between Tehran and a group of world powers.

The countries that signed the agreement in Vienna in 2015 include the five permanent members of the Security Council — the US, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China — plus Germany and the European Union. — Agencies