With the end of Resolution 2231 and the beginning of a new chapter in the legal nuclear dispute, Russia and China are once again standing in defense of Iran. Using the institutional capacities of the Security Council, legal arguments, and diplomatic coordination with Tehran, these two Asian powers consider Western efforts to activate the snapback to be illegitimate and support Tehran's narrative at the end of Resolution 2231.
According to IRNA's foreign policy correspondent, with the official end of Security Council Resolution 2231 on October 18 and the collapse of the JCPOA's legal mechanisms, the two key players in the Eastern order, namely Russia and China, who in recent months have tried to prevent the activation of the so-called "snapback" mechanism and the automatic return of the six Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iran by using diplomatic, legal, and political means, are now actively playing a role in a new phase of this legal and geopolitical conflict.
While the West has tried to revive the mechanism for the return of sanctions with the expiration of Resolution 2231, Moscow and Beijing have clearly stated that such a move has no legal basis and has no legitimacy from the perspective of the United Nations Charter. These two Eastern powers, by emphasizing that all provisions of Resolution 2231 will expire on October 18, 2025, in accordance with its operative paragraph 8, have effectively stood up to the efforts of the United States and the European Troika to impose a new interpretation of this resolution.
Previously, Russia, by emphasizing the illegality of any Western attempt to revive the abrogated resolutions, and China, by defending Iran’s legitimate right to peaceful use of nuclear energy, had been at the forefront of confronting the West’s unilateralist approach. The positions of Russia and China in the last few months have clearly shown that for Moscow and Beijing, the dispute over “snapback” is not simply a dispute over a legal clause, but a test to measure the effectiveness of the Security Council and the balance of power in the international system; a system in which the East is redefining its role vis-à-vis the West.
In this context, the Security Council has become an open scene of this confrontation in recent weeks. At the October 25 meeting, China and Russia submitted a draft resolution to extend the provisions of 2231; a proposal that, although initially unlikely to pass, provided an opportunity for Moscow and Beijing to express their positions openly and in an unprecedentedly harsh tone against the West.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said at the meeting: “The European troika put pressure on Iran based on lies, while Iran promised to behave responsibly and reached an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.” He added to the French representative: “You have no independence; your big brother, America, decides for you. You have forgotten international law and played with the legitimacy of the Security Council.”
The End of Resolution 2231 and the Redefining of the Role of the Key Players in the Eastern Order / Why Moscow and Beijing Stood by Tehran
At the same time, Geng Shuang, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, emphasized that Iran had shown positive signs of engagement and negotiation, and said: “There is still an opportunity for diplomacy, and this opportunity should not be sacrificed for political calculations.” Beijing’s positions at this meeting were in line with China’s long-standing policy of supporting a political resolution of the Iranian nuclear dispute and opposing US extra-Soviet sanctions.
A few weeks earlier, at the Security Council meeting on September 18, when the European Troika, supported by the United States, voted to continue lifting sanctions and in effect reinstate six previous sanctions resolutions against Iran, the representatives of Russia and China once again stood by Tehran and, citing Iran’s legal arguments, declared that Europe’s action lacked legal validity. The Russian representative stated bluntly: “There is no legitimacy to reimpose sanctions against Iran. Europe's action is a clear violation of Resolution 2231 and disregard for the legal mechanisms of the Security Council.”
In line with these positions, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi yesterday published parts of a joint letter from Iran, China, and Russia to the Secretary-General and President of the Security Council on the social network X, revealing the three countries' common position in defending the legal validity of Resolution 2231. The letter emphasized that “the efforts of the three European countries to activate what is called the so-called snapback are fundamentally incorrect from a legal and procedural perspective,” and according to operative paragraph 8 of the resolution, “all its provisions will expire after October 18, 2025.”
Accordingly, the actions of Russia and China in recent months can be categorized and evaluated within the framework of institutional defense within the UN framework, legal and procedural reasoning, diplomatic coordination with Tehran, and symbolic signaling in the East-West division. Where these two countries first took advantage of their institutional capacity in the Security Council, while at the legal level, they accepted Iran's interpretation of Resolution 2231 and based it on their arguments.
In official notes and separate statements, they clarified that no country has the right to have its own interpretation of the UN Security Council resolution and emphasized that only the "parties to the JCPOA" can activate the mechanisms contained in it; while the United States has withdrawn from the agreement and three European countries have also lost the necessary authority by violating their obligations.
The End of Resolution 2231 and the Redefining of the Role of the Key Holders of the Eastern Order / Why Moscow and Beijing Stood by Tehran
In the diplomatic arena, Moscow and Beijing also established close coordination with Tehran. On October 17, one day before the resolution officially expired, the three countries Iran, Russia and China sent a joint letter to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council stating that "all provisions of Resolution 2231 will expire on October 18, 2025." At the same time, the two powers defended Iran's positions in its interactions with the International Atomic Energy Agency and considered Tehran's cooperation with the agency a sign of responsibility; an action that challenged the Western narrative of "violation of commitments."
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