The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to adopt a resolution sponsored by China and Russia that would have extended sanctions relief for Iran for another six months under the nuclear deal.
The vote in the 15-member Council was 4 in favour (Algeria, China, Pakistan, Russia) to 9 against (Denmark, France, Greece, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, United Kingdom, United States), with 2 abstentions (Guyana, South Korea). At least 9 votes are required for a resolution to pass.
The rejection means that sanctions that were lifted under the deal will be re-imposed starting on Saturday evening.
The development comes a month after three European countries that signed the agreement – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – notified the Council about what they described as Iran’s “significant non-performance” and violations, thus triggering the so-called “snapback mechanism”.
In an explanation of vote, Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Geng Shuang, said China was deeply disappointed at the result of the vote.
“A breakdown in the Iranian nuclear issue could trigger a new regional security crisis which runs counter to common interests of the international community,” he said.
United States Deputy Representative Dorothy Shea said she was pleased that the Council rejected what she called
“this last-ditch effort by the Russia and China”, calling 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 Polyanskiy addressed nations who refused to support the draft.
“Now, there certainly are no longer any illusions,” he said. “These countries have definitively demonstrated that all of their assurances about their focus on arriving at a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear programme issue for all of these years, were mere noise.”
Picking up that thread, Pakistan’s delegate Umer Siddique noted his delegation’s vote in favour of the draft and stressed that “buying more time would be a critically important prerequisite to move forward”. To that end, “the only logical step would be a technical extension of [Council] resolution 2231 (2015)”.
Voicing support for JCPOA, Siddiqui, who is director general, UN, in the Foreign Ministry, said that coercive measures would not resolve outstanding issues but complicate them further and that sanctions would only hurt ordinary Iranians.
“Any disputes and differences arising from its implementation should be resolved in a cooperative manner, without resort to extreme measures.”
Pakistan, he added, has consistently advocated the primacy of diplomatic engagement and cooperation and the imperative of avoiding confrontation and conflict.