The UN Security Council has rejected a draft resolution proposed by Russia and China that would have extended UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted in support of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program, by six months.
Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria voted in favor of the resolution, while nine countries, including France, the US and the UK, voted against it, and the Republic of Korea and Guyana abstained. For the UN Security Council to adopt a draft resolution, it had to be supported by nine Security Council members, with none of the permanent five (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France) opposing it.
On 28 August, the United Kingdom, Germany and France initiated the UN Security Council mechanism to restore sanctions on Iran. On 19 September, the Council rejected a resolution not to reimpose sanctions on Iran. During the vote, Russia, Algeria, China and Pakistan voted in favour of the document. Nine members of the Security Council, including the UK, US and France, voted against, with two abstaining.
The UK's permanent representative to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said that UN sanctions on Iran would be reinstated "later this week" after the Security Council failed to adopt a resolution by Russia and China to extend the Iran nuclear deal.
„Last week, the Council completed the necessary steps in the sanctions reimposition process outlined in Resolution 2231, so later this week, UN sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear weapons programme will be reinstated. "All member states are obliged to fully comply with these sanctions, as required by the UN Charter," the diplomat said.
Any attempts to restore the UN Security Council anti-Iran sanctions that were in force before 2015 are illegal and unviable, said Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN.
„I would like to emphasize that the UN Secretariat, of course, has no grounds for renewing the relevant mandates for monitoring and implementing sanctions against Iran. "Any attempt to do so would constitute a violation of Article 100 of the UN Charter and would force us to seriously reconsider our relationship with the Secretariat," he said in a speech after the Security Council failed to adopt a resolution by Russia and China to extend the Iran nuclear deal.
In 2006, the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee (1737 Committee) was established to monitor the implementation of sanctions against Iran's nuclear and missile programs. In addition, Resolution 1929, adopted by the UN Security Council in 2010, established a group of experts to assist the 1737 Committee. The 1737 Committee, which focuses on the Iranian nuclear issue, ceased its activities in accordance with Resolution 2231, adopted in July 2015 in support of the Iran nuclear deal.
Polyansky noted that Moscow and Beijing have done everything possible to “prevent negative developments around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and create a chance for diplomacy“. “Now the full responsibility for all the consequences and results of today's vote, both for the situation on the ground and for the future work of the Security Council, lies with those countries that did not support our project“, the Russian diplomat concluded.
The United States, Britain and France are determined to completely destroy the nuclear deal with Iran, Polyansky said after the Security Council failed to adopt the resolution proposed by Russia and China to extend the nuclear deal with Iran.
“We regret that a number of colleagues on the Security Council did not find the courage and wisdom to support our project. Their abstention from voting shows, at the very least, doubts about the destructive policy pursued by the United States, Britain and France, which aims to completely destroy the nuclear deal and put an end to diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis surrounding it,“ he said.
The Russian diplomat noted that the adoption of the resolution “would preserve the international community's chances for a diplomatic resolution of the contradictions in the context of the Iranian nuclear program“.
Russia categorically rejects the statements of Britain, Germany and France to activate the mechanism for the rapid restoration of sanctions on the Iranian nuclear program, as these countries have systematically violated the agreement and therefore do not have the right to use the mechanisms provided for in the Tehran nuclear deal, Polyansky said.
“We have repeatedly set out our arguments in detail, including in the joint letter of the Russian, Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers, circulated to the Security Council on August 28. A country that systematically violates the agreement cannot use the mechanisms provided for in it“, he said in his speech after the vote in the UN Security Council on a draft resolution by Russia and China to extend Resolution 2231, which supports the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program.