Tel Aviv (dpa) – Israel has condemned the rejection by the UN Security Council of a US proposal to extend the arms embargo on Iran as "a disgrace".

"Instead of allowing the terrorist regime in Tehran to acquire deadly weapons, the council should impose crippling sanctions on Iran," Israel's new UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan tweeted on Saturday.

"The council has utterly failed in its responsibility of maintaining international peace and security.

"This decision will further destabilize the Middle East, and increase the spread of violence around the world."

The Security Council on Friday resoundingly rejected the US bid to indefinitely extend the arms embargo on Iran.

The US-sponsored resolution received two votes in favour, two against, and 11 abstentions, the council's president announced.

The 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran is set to end in October, under a provision of UN Resolution 2231, in which the Security Council backed the nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers signed in Vienna in 2015.

Israel and Iran are arch-enemies. Israel accuses Tehran of continuing to work on developing nuclear weapons, while Iran threatens the existence of the Jewish state.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently described Israel as a tumour in the Middle East region that had to be excised and removed with a jihad, or holy war, by the Palestinians.