UN Security Council rejects China-Russia resolution extending Iran nuclear sanctions relief before deadline

By Brie Stimson

Published September 26, 2025

The United Nations on Friday failed to adopt a resolution brought by China and Russia that would have extended sanctions relief for Iran for another six months under the nuclear deal.

The vote was 4 to 9, with Algeria, China, Pakistan and Russia in favor and Denmark, France, Greece, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, the United Kingdom and the United States against.

Guyana and South Korea abstained.

The vote came after Britain, France and Germany triggered the deal’s "snapback" measure, which reinstates sanctions on Iran following stalled talks on its nuclear program.

The sanctions, which will go into effect unless there’s a last-minute deal Friday, will include freezing Iranian assets abroad, halting arms deals with Tehran and penalizing any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program.

"We had hoped that European colleagues and the U.S. would think twice, and they would opt for the path of diplomacy and dialogue instead of their clumsy blackmail, which merely results in escalation of the situation in the region," Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy Russian ambassador to the U.N., said during the meeting.

Ocean view of Iran's first nuclear power plant.

Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran April 29, 2024 (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had also been meeting with his French, German and British counterparts in the lead-up to the U.N. vote.

A European diplomat told The Associated Press the meeting "did not produce any new developments, any new results."

On Tuesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, also said Iran would not "surrender to pressure" and that negotiations with the U.S. would be a "dead end."

The United Nations on Friday failed to adopt a resolution brought by China and Russia that would have extended sanctions relief for Iran for another six months under the nuclear deal. (United Nations)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, walks on his way to a bilateral meeting with France's President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City Wednesday. (Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)

In an interview on Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called the decision "unfair, unjust and illegal."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/un-security-council-rejects-china-russia-resolution-extend-iran-nuclear-sanctions-relief-before-deadline