CAMEROON – Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a United Nations resolution that would have allowed U.N. experts to continue monitoring sanctions reimposed on Iran last year over its nuclear program.
The Security Council sanctions remain in force. They freeze Iranian assets held abroad, ban arms transactions with Tehran and impose penalties related to the development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other restrictions.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom invoked the “snapback” provision of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers, restoring the sanctions on Sept. 27, 2025. The move also re-established the Security Council sanctions committee and authorized a U.N. panel of experts to oversee implementation.
The United States drafted a resolution seeking to renew the panel’s mandate for another year. The effort comes as Washington pursues a broader campaign to isolate Tehran from its remaining economic partners while the war in Iran, now more than six months old, remains at a stalemate. The measure received 11 votes in favor and two against, while Somalia and Pakistan abstained, but failed because Russia and China used their vetoes.
U.N. nuclear inspectors have been unable to verify the condition of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile since Israel and the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said Iran had maintained 440.9 kilograms, or 972 pounds, of uranium enriched to as much as 60% purity — a short technical step from the 90% level considered weapons-grade.
Iran’s U.N. mission welcomed the Chinese and Russian vetoes, saying on social media that the two countries “prevented yet another cynical attempt by the United States and its allies to abuse the Security Council for their political purposes.”
U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Jennifer Locetta said Washington had expected the vetoes, arguing that the experts “would have shined the light” on prohibited cooperation between Iran and its partners.
According to Locetta, the vetoes fit into a wider push to block sanctions monitoring and prevent the appointment of expert-panel members “to stifle reporting that implicates their own activities in support of rogue regimes.”
A Russian veto in March 2024 ended U.N. expert monitoring of sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear program. Locetta also noted that sanctions in Mali were terminated, while expert appointments in Yemen and the Central African Republic have been delayed or rejected.
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Although the Iran panel was authorized a year ago and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put forward proposed members, none were ever approved.
“Without an independent panel of experts, this council loses its principal source of impartial, evidence-based reporting on sanctions violations, creating a monitoring gap that only benefits the Iranian regime and those who profit from evading those measures,” Locetta warned.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow’s claim that the “snapback” of sanctions against Iran was illegal, and therefore the resolution to extend the mandate of the panel of experts “was deeply flawed and did not have any legal basis.”
Russia and China had strongly urged the U.S. and its allies not to put the resolution to a vote, which would only increase tensions in the council, Nebenzia said, but Washington “decided to opt for confrontation.”
French U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, the current council president, said implementing sanctions is “a crucial instrument to encourage Iran” to return to its nuclear obligations. France will study how to ensure sanctions are enforced, he said.
One possibility would be to follow what happened after the North Korea panel of experts was abolished: establishing a monitoring team that includes France, Germany, the U.K. and the United States.
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