Russia and China have vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have extended independent monitoring of sanctions on Iran, effectively ending the mandate of the expert panel tasked with tracking violations and sanctions evasion.

The US-drafted resolution received 11 votes in favour on September 17, while Pakistan and Somalia abstained. Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council, voted against it, meaning the measure failed despite support from a clear majority of the 15-member body.

The decision does not remove the UN sanctions on Iran. Those measures were reimposed in September 2025 after Britain, France and Germany triggered the “snapback” mechanism contained in the 2015 nuclear agreement, arguing that Tehran had failed to meet its commitments. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and disputes the legality of the sanctions’ return.

What the veto does remove is the mandate for the independent Panel of Experts that was supposed to investigate suspected violations, monitor sanctions evasion and report its findings to the Security Council. Western diplomats argued that without the panel, the council loses one of its main sources of independent information on prohibited arms transfers, financial networks and other efforts to bypass restrictions.

In practice, however, the panel had already been largely non-functional. Security Council members had been unable to agree on appointments for about a year, and Russia and China had blocked several proposed experts. The sanctions committee itself has also been weakened by disagreements over leadership and procedure.

Moscow and Beijing argue that the wider sanctions regime is itself legally questionable. Both governments say the restrictions tied to the 2015 nuclear deal should have expired when Security Council Resolution 2231 reached its scheduled termination date in October 2025. They have accused Western powers of using the snapback mechanism improperly and of politicising the Security Council.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after the vote that Western governments were pursuing a dangerous course on Iran and argued that the nuclear dispute should be resolved through diplomacy rather than sanctions. Iran’s mission to the UN welcomed the veto and thanked Russia and China for blocking what it called a politically motivated attempt by the United States and its allies.

The United States and Britain took the opposite view. Washington warned that ending the panel creates a monitoring gap that could make it easier for Iran and other actors to evade restrictions without independent scrutiny. Britain said the veto did not affect the sanctions themselves, which it maintains remain binding on all UN member states.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will continue monitoring Iran’s nuclear programme, but its role is different. The IAEA focuses on nuclear safeguards and verification, while the now-defunct UN panel was designed to examine enforcement of sanctions more broadly, including proliferation-related activity and possible violations by third countries.

The result is an unusual situation: the sanctions remain formally in place according to Western governments, but the Security Council has now lost the independent mechanism intended to track whether those sanctions are being followed.

That leaves enforcement increasingly dependent on national intelligence, individual governments and political interpretation at a time when the council itself is deeply divided over whether the Iran sanctions regime is even legally valid.