Middle East
People walk past a domestically-built missile “Khaibar-buster,” and banners showing portraits of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and the late armed forces commanders, who were killed in Israeli strike in June. Photo: AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United Nations on Sunday reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran over its nuclear program, as last-ditch efforts by the country's strongest allies Russia and China failed to stop the decision.
"The United Nations reimposed sanctions and other restrictions pursuant to six UN Security Council Resolutions – 1696, 1737, 1747, 1803, 1835, and 1929 – based on Iran’s continuing “significant non-performance” of its nuclear commitments," read a statement by the US Department of State.
The statement added that their reactivation "concludes the snapback process initiated on August 28, 2025, in an act of decisive global leadership on the part of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom."
The reimposition came a day after the UN Security Council rejected efforts by Russia and China to delay it, a move that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian slammed as “unfair, unjust and illegal.”
"The Security Council’s decision on September 19 – reaffirmed on September 26 – to restore these restrictions sends a clear message: the world will not acquiesce to threats and half measures – and Tehran will be held to account," said the US Department of State.
Reimposing “snapback sanctions” came a day before the deadline, after France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, known as E3 countries, said weeks of talks and meetings with Tehran did not bear any fruit to reach an agreement over its nuclear program.
The sanctions mean again freezing Iranian assets abroad, suspending arms deals with Tehran, and penalizing any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well as several other crippling measures.
The snapback mechanism is a powerful diplomatic tool embedded in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that allows for the automatic reimposition of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran if it violates its nuclear commitments.
The European powers had upped their pressure on Tehran to adhere to nuclear commitments ever since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, which ended when the United States launched its own strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and subsequently brokered a ceasefire.
Before the war with Israel, Iran held five rounds of Oman-mediated indirect nuclear talks with the US, which had pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018.
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