Iran sanctions monitoring hit as Russia, China veto US-backed UN panel extension.
Washington announced sanctions against two companies and three associates of Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, accusing them of helping sanctioned Iranian entities access the international financial system through digital currency networks.
Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the US resolution “was deeply flawed and did not have any legal basis”. He said Moscow and Beijing had warned Washington against putting the resolution to a vote, arguing that doing so would increase tensions at the Security Council. Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Jennifer Locetta said the experts “would have shined the light” on prohibited cooperation between Iran and its partners. “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 said. France has said sanctions remain an important tool for encouraging Iran to comply with its nuclear obligations.
Russia has argued that the return of the sanctions was legally invalid. The US took the opposite position. The US is separately tightening pressure on Tehran. One option under discussion is to create a separate monitoring arrangement involving France, Germany, the UK and the US after the UN expert panel’s mandate ends.