Russia, China Veto US Bid to Extend UN Iran Sanctions Monitoring

Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a United States-drafted resolution at the UN Security Council that would have extended for one year the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Iran, leaving the monitoring arrangement without approved members.

The vote was 11-2 in favour, with Somalia and Pakistan abstaining, but the resolution failed because of the vetoes held by Moscow and Beijing.

The sanctions themselves remain in effect. They freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalise the development of Iran's ballistic missile programme, among other measures. The restrictions were reimposed on September 27, 2025, after France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the "snapback" provision of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers. That step restored the Security Council sanctions committee and authorised a panel of UN experts to monitor implementation.

Washington's proposal to renew the expert panel's mandate came as it pursues a broader campaign to isolate Tehran from its remaining economic partners, with the war in Iran now more than six months old and at a stalemate.

US deputy ambassador to the UN Jennifer Locetta said the vetoes were not a surprise, arguing the experts "would have shined the light" on prohibited cooperation between Iran and its partners. She described the move as part of a wider push to block expert monitoring of sanctions, and even the appointment of panel members, in order to suppress reporting that implicates their own activities in support of rogue regimes.

She pointed to a Russian veto in March 2024 that ended UN monitoring of sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear programme, the termination of sanctions in Mali, and delays or refusals of expert appointments in Yemen and the Central African Republic. Although the Iran panel was authorised a year ago and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed members, they were never 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 UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia repeated Moscow's position that the snapback of sanctions against Iran was illegal and that the resolution to extend the panel's mandate was therefore deeply flawed and had no legal basis. He said Russia and China had strongly urged the US and its allies not to put the resolution to a vote, warning it would only raise tensions in the council, but Washington chose confrontation.

French UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont, the current council president, said enforcing sanctions is a crucial instrument to encourage Iran to return to its nuclear obligations, and France will study how to ensure they are implemented. One option, he indicated, would mirror the response after the North Korea expert panel was abolished: setting up a monitoring team comprising France, Germany, the UK and the United States.

Iran's UN mission thanked China and Russia for the vetoes, saying on social media that the two countries had prevented yet another cynical attempt by the United States and its allies to abuse the Security Council for their political purposes.

Since Israel and the US struck Iran's nuclear sites in June 2025, UN nuclear inspectors have been unable to verify the status of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium. The UN nuclear watchdog has said Iran maintained a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.