Russia and China on Thursday blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution that sought to extend the mandate of U.N. experts tasked with monitoring sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
The resolution, drafted by the United States, called for a one-year extension of the expert panel’s mandate. It received 11 votes in favor, while Russia and China voted against it and Somalia and Pakistan abstained.
The sanctions currently in effect include measures freezing Iranian assets abroad, restricting arms-related transactions and penalizing activities connected to Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
The measures were restored on September 27, 2025, after France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and major world powers.
The move reinstated the Security Council sanctions committee and authorized an expert panel to monitor compliance.
The latest vote came amid heightened tensions over Iran and continued U.S. efforts to restrict Tehran’s economic ties. On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury and State departments also imposed sanctions on two companies, BitBank and Pishtaz Simorgh Electronic Trade Co., along with three associates of BitBank chief Babak Zanjani.
U.S. officials accused the individuals and companies of helping sanctioned Iranian entities bypass restrictions and gain access to the international financial system through digital currency networks.
Iran’s U.N. mission welcomed the Russian and Chinese 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.”
The dispute also comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency faces difficulties verifying the condition of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile following Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog has estimated that Iran had 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched to as much as 60% purity, considerably above the level normally used for civilian nuclear activities and relatively close to the 90% concentration generally considered weapons-grade.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Jennifer Locetta said Washington anticipated the Russian and Chinese vetoes, arguing that the panel could have exposed prohibited cooperation involving Iran and its partners.
According to Locetta, the vetoes form part of a broader effort to prevent independent scrutiny of sanctions enforcement and the selection of experts.
The United States has also pointed to previous instances where U.N. sanctions monitoring mechanisms have been disrupted.
A Russian veto in March 2024 ended the expert panel that monitored sanctions on North Korea, while other U.N. sanctions regimes have faced delays or changes in expert appointments.
Although the Iran panel was authorized a year ago and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed candidates, the Security Council never formally approved its members.
“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.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia maintained Moscow’s position that the restoration of sanctions through the snapback mechanism was unlawful. He said the proposed extension of the expert panel therefore “was deeply flawed and did not have any legal basis.”
Nebenzia also said Russia and China had urged Washington and its allies not to proceed with the vote, warning that doing so could further increase tensions within the council. He said Washington “decided to opt for confrontation.”
France defended the continued enforcement of the sanctions. French U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said implementing the measures remains “a crucial instrument to encourage Iran” to comply again with its nuclear commitments.
Bonnafont said France would examine alternatives for monitoring enforcement, including a possible arrangement modeled on the system established after the North Korea expert panel was dissolved.
Under that proposal, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States could form their own monitoring mechanism for the sanctions.