NEW YORK: United Nations sanctions on Iran are set to be reimposed, Britain’s UN envoy has said, after a Russian and Chinese Security Council resolution to delay them failed, prompting Tehran to warn that the West bore responsibility for any consequences after nuclear talks floundered.
Yesterday, the UN nuclear watchdog said that inspectors had been allowed to return to Iranian nuclear sites, but Western powers did not see enough progress to agree to a delay after a week of top-level diplomacy at the UN General Assembly.
European powers set the clock ticking a month ago for the “snapback” of the UN sanctions, accusing Iran of failing to come clean on its nuclear programme – including through countermeasures it took in response to Israeli and US bombing.
The decision to restore sanctions by Western powers is likely to exacerbate tensions with Tehran, which has already warned that the action would be met with a harsh response and open the door to escalation.
The Russian and Chinese push to delay the return of sanctions on Iran failed at the 15-member UN Security Council after only four countries supported their draft resolution.
“This council does not have the necessary assurance that there is a clear path to a swift diplomatic solution,” Britain’s envoy to the UN, Barbara Wood, said after the vote.
“This council fulfilled the necessary steps of the snapback process set out in resolution 2231, therefore UN sanctions targeting Iranian proliferation will be reimposed this weekend,” she said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told a group of journalists and analysts that Iran had no intention to leave the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a reaction to the revival of the UN sanctions.
“Iran will never seek nuclear weapons … We are fully prepared to be transparent about our highly enriched uranium,” Mr Pezeshkian said.
All UN sanctions on Iran are due to return at 8pm Eastern Time today (1am Irish time) after European powers, known as the E3, triggered a 30-day process accusing Tehran of violating a 2015 deal meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
Diplomats had said the resolution to delay sanctions for six months had been unlikely to pass, after last-ditch talks between Iran and Britain, France and Germany failed to break a deadlock.
Nine countries voted no, while two abstained.
Following what it said was European states’ “irresponsible” reinstatement of the snapback mechanism, Iran has recalled its ambassadors to Germany, France and the United Kingdom for consultation, state media reported.
Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations accused the Western powers of burying the diplomatic path.
US betrayed diplomacy, E3 buried it – Iran
“The US has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 which have buried it,” Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told the council, saying the snapback was “legally void, politically reckless and procedurally flawed”.
“Diplomacy will never die, but it will be more difficult and more complicated than before,” he told reporters after the Security Council meeting.
The European powers had offered to delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months to allow space for talks on a long-term deal if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors, addressed concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engaged in talks with the United States.
The US representative at the council said Iran had failed to address E3 concerns meaning a return of sanctions was inevitable, although she left the door open for diplomacy.
France said the return of sanctions was not the end of diplomacy.
UN sanctions would come into force immediately today, while European Union sanctions would return next week.
Iran’s economy is already struggling with crippling sanctions reimposed since 2018 after US President Donald Trump ditched the pact during his first term.
The sanctions would restore an arms embargo, a ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing, a ban on activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, a global asset freeze and travel bans on Iranian individuals and entities and would also hit its energy sector.
Addressing the UN General Assembly earlier yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country bombed Iran’s nuclear installations with the US in June, said the world should not allow Iran to rebuild its nuclear and military programs.
“We lifted a dark cloud that could have claimed millions and millions of lives, but ladies and gentlemen, we must remain vigilant,” Mr Netanyahu told the General Assembly yesterday.
“We must not allow Iran to rebuild its military nuclear capacities, Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium. These stockpiles must be eliminated, and tomorrow UN Security Council sanctions on Iran must be snapped back,” he said.
-John Irish, Parisa Hafezi, Rodrigo Campos
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