UN Security Council Rejects China-Russia Resolution to Extend Iran Sanctions Relief
Votes split as snapback sanctions loom; assets, arms deals and ballistic-missile restrictions could be reinstated
The U.N. Security Council on Friday failed to adopt a Chinese-Russian resolution that would have extended sanctions relief on Iran for another six months under the 2015 nuclear deal. The vote was 4 to 9, with Algeria, China, Pakistan and Russia in favor and Denmark, France, Greece, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, the United Kingdom and the United States against. Guyana and South Korea abstained. The decision came as Britain, France and Germany triggered the accord’s snapback mechanism, reinstating sanctions after stalled talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Under the measure, sanctions would include freezing Iranian assets abroad, halting arms deals with Tehran and penalizing any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program. "We had hoped that European colleagues and the U.S. would think twice, and they would opt for the path of diplomacy and dialogue instead of their clumsy blackmail, which merely results in escalation of the situation in the region," Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy Russian ambassador to the U.N., said during the meeting.
In the lead-up to the vote, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had been meeting with his French, German and British counterparts, but a European diplomat told The Associated Press that the talks did not produce any new results.
On Tuesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not "surrender to pressure" and that negotiations with the U.S. would be a "dead end." Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian was seen in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, and in interviews he described Friday’s decision as "unfair, unjust and illegal."
The sanctions would take effect unless a last-minute deal is reached by Friday. The United States and its Western allies have argued that Tehran should be held to the terms of the JCPOA, while Iran has maintained it will not concede to what it calls coercive measures while talks remain stalled.
The Security Council’s failure to unite on extending relief underscores the ongoing fragility of diplomacy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, even as Tehran says it seeks to defend its rights under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
