During 2020, 13 UN embargoes, 21 Euro-pean Union (EU) embargoes and 1 League of Arab States embargo were in force. No new multilateral arms embargo was imposed and the UN embargo on the supply of major arms to Iran and exports of any arms from Iran expired, although other aspects of the embargo remained in place. Ten of the EU arms embargoes matched the coverage of those imposed by the UN; three were broader in terms of duration, geo-graphical scope or the types of weapon covered; and eight had no UN counterpart. The single Arab League arms embargo, on Syria, had no UN counterpart. 2020 was a testing year for multilateral arms embar-goes: the USA sought to unilaterally extend the UN arms embargo on Iran beyond October 2020; as in previous years, investi-gations by the UN revealed numerous reported cases of violations, most notably with regard to the UN arms embargo on Libya; and the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan raised questions about the implementation and enforcement of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s voluntary arms embargo on Nagorno-Karabakh.
See also: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/SIPRIYB21c14sII.pdf