Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Photograph:( AFP )
Tehran said the ban imposed more than a decade ago was lifted "automatically" as of Sunday, based on the terms of a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran has said it is more inclined to sell weapons rather than buy them, after it announced the end of a longstanding UN conventional arms embargo.
Tehran said the ban imposed more than a decade ago was lifted "automatically" as of Sunday, based on the terms of a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
The Islamic republic's arch-enemy the United States had notably withdrawn from the deal.
"Before being a buyer in the arms market, Iran has the ability to supply" other countries, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.
The lifting of the embargo allows Iran to buy and sell military equipment including tanks, armoured vehicles, combat aircraft, helicopters and heavy artillery.
According to Khatibzadeh, Iran will "act responsibly" and sell weapons to other countries "based on its own calculations."
The embargo on the sale of arms to Iran was due to start expiring progressively from October 18, under the terms of the UN resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal.
However, Washington has argued that arms sales to Iran would still violate UN resolutions, and has threatened sanctions on anyone involved is such deals.
President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the nuclear deal and unilaterally begun reimposing economic sanctions on Iran in 2018.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that arms sales to Iran would breach UN resolutions and result in sanctions, after Tehran said the longstanding UN embargo on arms trade with the Islamic republic had expired.
"The United States is prepared to use its domestic authorities to sanction any individual or entity that materially contributes to the supply, sale, or transfer of conventional arms to or from Iran," Pompeo said in a statement.
(with inputs from agencies)