The UK, France and Germany have formally notified the UN Security Council (UNSC) that if the council fails to adopt a resolution extending the suspension of Tehran’s sanctions, it will move to re-registering UN sanctions within 30 days.
Three European countries (collectively referred to as E3) made the move in a letter to the UN Security Council.
Tehran said the E3 movement is illegal and will have a negative impact on cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, known as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On Thursday, Russia’s first deputy UN director, Dmitry Poliansky, said the decision to reimpose snapback sanctions on Iran “has no legal effect.” He told reporters in New York: “I believe that the E3 decision cannot and should not involve legal or procedural consequences. It is just a step in escalation.”
In particular, the previous day, Polyansky announced that Russia’s promotion to expand the effectiveness of UN Security Council resolution 2231 by six months until April 2026.
“As responsible participants in the JCPOA, Russia and China want to provide room for the opportunity to seek diplomacy and compromise on this issue,” he said, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS.
At the time of this report, China had not issued an official response to the E3 decision. However, in mid-August, Beijing reaffirmed its opposition to “calling” the snapback mechanism by repeating its “commitment to solving Iran’s nuclear issue through peaceful and diplomatic means.”
MNA