Russia and China have opposed a move by Western countries on Iran’s nuclear program at the UN Security Council, arguing that the Council no longer has the authority to take up the issue. The two countries say that UN Security Council Resolution 2231 expired in October 2025, leaving the Council without jurisdiction to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
According to a report by Press TV on Friday (July 10), the Security Council meeting was called at the request of European member states, but China and Russia opposed it; the meeting went ahead after a vote in which 11 countries were in favor, two against and two abstained. It was the third Security Council meeting on the matter since Resolution 2231 expired last year; earlier meetings in March and June this year had ended without any formal decision.
Resolution 2231 was adopted in 2015 to endorse the nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – signed between Iran and six world powers, and it expired on October 18, 2025. According to Iran, Russia and China, all of the resolution’s provisions and sanctions, and the Security Council’s responsibilities, ended after that date, leaving the Council with no further jurisdiction over Iran’s nuclear program. All three say the so-called sanctions-snapback initiative by Britain, France and Germany is legally and procedurally illegitimate because the resolution has already lapsed.
Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Anna Evstigneeva, said before the meeting that Resolution 2231 had had no effect since October 17, 2025, and that the Security Council’s mandate to discuss the matter had ended. She accused several Council members of breaking the rules by repeatedly calling meetings on such an issue for political purposes, and said Russia firmly rejected all attempts to raise tensions around Iran unreasonably or to use the Security Council for political ends. China’s deputy permanent representative, Sun Lei, took the same position, saying the expiry of Resolution 2231 on October 18, 2025 had also ended the Security Council’s formal role on Iran’s nuclear issue. Excessive politicization of the matter at the Council, he said, was deepening divisions among member states and making a political solution harder.
At the meeting, the United States and its Western allies again raised their earlier accusations about Iran’s nuclear program, but no decision, proposal or formal outcome was announced afterward. In a joint letter to the UN after the resolution expired, the three countries had said that the end of Resolution 2231 also ended the Security Council’s role on Iran’s nuclear issue, and that they rejected any attempt to revive the expired measures.
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