Senior Russian and Iranian officials have jointly condemned efforts by three European powers to reinstate expired United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Tehran, describing the action as illegitimate and without legal force, according to statements from the Iranian embassy.
The comments were made during a meeting in Moscow on Friday between Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
The diplomatic push comes after Britain, France, and Germany – the three European parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – activated a so-called “snapback” mechanism on September 28. The move is an attempt to restore a number of UNSC sanctions against Iran that were terminated under the terms of the accord.
In the meeting, Ambassador Jalali described the European move as “illegal” and an abuse of international mechanisms. He stated that European inaction on their JCPOA commitments began after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the multilateral agreement in 2018.
“By turning the snapback mechanism into a tool to reward the first violator of the JCPOA, the United States, [the Europeans] completed their breach of promise to the Iranian nation and the weakness of their international standing,” Jalali was quoted as saying.
Echoing Tehran’s position, the Russian deputy foreign minister said that his country considered the European effort to be “invalid.” He reiterated that Moscow has repeatedly and clearly stated its position against this “illegal process.”
This action by the Westerners showed that they do not respect the content of the Security Council resolutions and have a selective and instrumental approach, Ryabkov said.
