Pakistan Abstains as Russia, China Veto US Bid to Extend UN Monitoring of Iran SanctionsPakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Asim Iftikhar Ahmad addresses the Security Council meeting on September 17, 2026. — X/ @PakistanUN_NY
By Sadaf Sundas Riaz — SCN News
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 17 — Pakistan abstained on Thursday as Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution that would have extended independent United Nations monitoring of sanctions on Iran for another year, with Islamabad warning that confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear programme was making a negotiated settlement increasingly difficult. Eleven members of the 15-nation council backed the measure, Russia and China voted against it, while Pakistan and Somalia abstained. The Russian and Chinese vetoes blocked the resolution despite its majority support.
The vote exposed continuing divisions among major powers over the legal status and enforcement of sanctions restored against Iran after Britain, France and Germany triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism in 2025. Western governments say Iran failed to meet commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement, while Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons and Russia and China dispute the legitimacy of the restored sanctions. The panel of experts was intended to independently investigate suspected sanctions violations and report its findings to the Security Council.
Explaining Pakistan’s abstention, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Islamabad’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said regional hostilities, attacks on nuclear facilities and disagreements among permanent Security Council members had made diplomacy more difficult. He said Pakistan remained concerned that consideration of the Iranian nuclear issue had moved away from the cooperative approach that accompanied the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear agreement. Pakistan, he said, continued to regard diplomacy and dialogue as the guiding principles for resolving outstanding questions surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We reiterate our position that the Iran nuclear issue should be addressed through peaceful means,” Ahmad told the council, adding that the rights, obligations and responsibilities of the parties concerned should be respected. Pakistan also reaffirmed support for the International Atomic Energy Agency as the technical body responsible for nuclear safeguards and said the agency should be able to carry out that work independently and without political interference.
The Pakistani position stopped short of supporting either the U.S.-drafted extension or the Russian-Chinese effort to terminate the monitoring mandate. Islamabad instead linked its abstention to its longstanding argument that the nuclear dispute should return to negotiations, recalling that it had supported giving diplomacy additional time when the Security Council confronted the snapback dispute last year. Ahmad said Pakistan had warned then that a non-confrontational approach could preserve greater space for a durable settlement.
Washington argued that allowing the panel’s mandate to end would weaken independent scrutiny of sanctions violations. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the council that without the experts, members would lose an important source of impartial reporting, while the United States maintains that restored sanctions are necessary to constrain Iran’s nuclear and weapons-related activities. The panel has in practice been unable to operate for the past year because council members could not reach the consensus required to appoint its experts.
Russia and China took the opposite position, arguing that the sanctions and monitoring arrangements lacked a valid legal foundation. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused Western governments of politicising the Security Council and said disagreements surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme should be resolved through political and diplomatic negotiations. China similarly opposed the U.S. proposal, leaving the council divided not only over Iran’s nuclear activities but also over which UN restrictions remain legally applicable.
Pakistan’s abstention carries additional significance because Islamabad has sought an active diplomatic role in the wider Iran crisis rather than aligning completely with either side of the Security Council dispute. Pakistan has hosted U.S.-Iran contacts and on Thursday urged the parties to implement commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and return to negotiations. Ahmad said Islamabad would continue efforts aimed at regional peace and stability and called for diplomacy to be given the opportunity to produce a negotiated settlement.
The vote leaves the Security Council without agreement on an independent mechanism for monitoring implementation of the Iran sanctions regime at a time when the nuclear dispute has become intertwined with wider military confrontation in the Middle East. The IAEA continues to have a separate technical safeguards role, but the Security Council panel was designed specifically to investigate sanctions implementation and potential violations. Western members say losing that mechanism creates a monitoring gap, while Russia and China maintain that continuing it would reinforce sanctions they regard as illegitimate.
Pakistan did not endorse either of those competing interpretations in Thursday’s vote. Its abstention instead placed Islamabad’s emphasis on renewed negotiations, the independent technical role of the IAEA and avoidance of further confrontation — maintaining a diplomatic position as divisions over Iran deepen among the Security Council’s permanent members.