On Thursday, Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution aimed at allowing UN experts to continue monitoring sanctions against Iran. These sanctions were reimposed last year due to concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. The veto highlights ongoing tensions regarding international oversight of Iran’s nuclear activities and the geopolitical dynamics between the UN Security Council’s permanent members.
In March 2024, a Russian veto ended UN monitoring of sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program.
US deputy ambassador to the UN Jennifer Locetta said the United States wasn’t surprised by the vetoes because the experts “would have shined the light” on prohibited cooperation between Iran and its partners. She said the vetoes are part of a broader effort to prevent expert monitoring of sanctions, and even the appointment of panel members, “to stifle reporting that implicates their own activities in support of rogue regimes. In Mali, sanctions were terminated, and Locetta said that in Yemen and the Central African Republic expert appointments have been delayed or refused. Russian UN 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 US 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.”
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. Iran maintained a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.
French UN 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.
