China, Russia join Iran in rejecting European move to restore sanctions on Tehran
UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.
A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed”.
The letter published by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X on Monday said that the course taken by Britain, France, and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council”.
Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement, but the latter deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal, which resulted in launching the “snapback mechanism”.
“Our joint letter with my colleagues, the foreign ministers of China and Russia, signed in Tianjin, reflects the firm position that the European attempt to invoke snapback is legally baseless and politically destructive”, Iran’s foreign minister said in his post on X.
China and Russia were signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.
