Photo credit: VOA
A resolution to extend sanctions relief to Iran under a 2015 nuclear deal failed to pass in the UN Security Council on Friday.
China and Russia had tabled the draft and it received four votes in favour, nine against and two abstentions. It sought to extend the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for six months, as well as Council resolution 2231 (2015) that endorsed it It also encouraged continued engagement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The rejection means that sanctions that were lifted under the deal will be re-imposed starting Saturday morning. It comes a month after three European countries that signed the agreement, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, notified the Council about what they called Iran’s “significant non-performance” and violations, thus triggering the so-called “snapback mechanism”.
China’s representative regretted that the resolution was not adopted and called for upholding regional peace and stability.
Ambassador Barbara Woodward explained why the UK voted no. She said, “as this Council knows, Iran is defying the global non-proliferation regime”. Furthermore, its nuclear escalation has been detailed in over 60 IAEA reports over the past six years.
United States Deputy Representative Dorothy Shea was pleased that the Council rejected what she called “this last-ditch effort by the Russian Federation and China”. She calked the text “a hollow effort to relieve Iran of any accountability for its continued significant non-performance of its nuclear commitments.”
Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyansky said, “Now, there certainly are no longer any illusions. These countries have definitely demonstrated that all of their assurances about their focus on arriving at a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear programme issue for all these years were mere noise.”
Source: United Nations
