Russia Confirms Draft to Block Snapback Move against Iran

By Staff, Agencies

Russia has confirmed circulating a draft proposal at the UN Security Council aimed at averting activation of the so-called “snapback” mechanism that would restore the council’s sanctions against Iran.

The country’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanski made the remarks to reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.

“It [the proposal] is about extending Resolution 2231,” he said.

The resolution’s expected expiration in October would lead to reinstatement of the coercive measures.

The European trio of the UK, France, and Germany – the United States allies in a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world countries – has been trying hard to have the measures restored.

Polyanski, however, insisted, “Russia and China want to give more breathing space for diplomacy and provide some possibilities for an active quest for a diplomatic solution to this issue.”

He said Moscow and Beijing were doing so in their capacity as “as responsible members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA)], the nuclear deal’s official name.

In 2018, the US illegally withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions. The European trio broke their promises, reapplying their own bans instead of restoring the agreement.

Now, they falsely accuse Iran of pursuing military goals in its peaceful nuclear program. Iran, Russia, and China say Europe’s failure to uphold commitments leaves no grounds to trigger the snapback.

According to Polyanski, averting the mechanism’s deployment “is in the interest of all the parties, because there are a lot of belligerent initiatives that would absolutely make the situation much worse.”

“The choice of the international community should be in favor of peace and diplomacy, not in favor of war – and that is what our draft is about,” he added.

“Hopefully it will be acceptable. I think it will be kind of a litmus test for those who really want to uphold diplomatic efforts and for those who do not want any diplomatic solution, but just want to pursue their own nationalist, selfish agendas against Iran. We will see quite soon.”