TEHRAN, Sept. 29– Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that attempts by European countries and the United States to revive terminated United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions against Iran constitute a “unilateral rewriting” of international law.
In a letter addressed to his foreign counterparts, Araghchi said that those “assertions” must be rejected as they, among other things, contradict the spirit of Resolution 2231 that endorses a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
He said Resolution 2231 terminated the previous UNSC resolutions on Iran’s nuclear program, including all sanction measures, and set out a clear time-bound framework, under which all nuclear-related restrictions would permanently expire on Oct. 18, 2025.
The resolution, he added, gave no country unilateral authority to alter, reinterpret or extend its provisions. Araghchi noted that the snapback procedure invoked by the E3, namely France, Britain and Germany, and the United States was “null and void,” citing the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and the European countries’ failure to honor their obligations under the deal.
Neither Iran nor any other UN member state was legally obligated to comply with such “unlawful” claims, he said, noting that Iran would continue to defend its sovereign rights and legitimate interests while remaining open to “genuine negotiations on an equal footing.”
Last month, the E3 formally invoked the snapback mechanism, which allowed for the re-imposition of UN sanctions within 30 days if Iran was deemed in breach of the nuclear deal. On Sept. 19, the UNSC failed to adopt a resolution that would have extended sanctions relief for Iran under the JCPOA. A subsequent resolution, which sought to grant a six-month extension to both the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, also failed to pass in the UNSC on Friday. The sanctions were re-imposed on Saturday evening. In addition, Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s UN envoy, in a letter on Sunday, strongly protested against the move by the UN Secretariat to inform the member states of the reinstatement of the terminated UNSC resolutions on Iran, according to the official news agency IRNA.
