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STORY: UN / IRAN SANCTIONS VOTE
TRT: 6 :46
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: CHINESE / ENGLISH / FRENCH / RUSSIAN / NATS
SHOTLIST: 26 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
26 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Various shots, Council Members voting for the draft resolution
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Jérôme Bonnafont, Permanent Representative of France to the UN:
“First of all, effective resumption of cooperation with the IAEA. In other words, access of inspectors to the most sensitive Iranian nuclear installations, including photo in Natanz. And while Iran claimed to have signed in Cairo resumption of cooperation with the agency, these highly sensitive sites have not been subject to inspections in violation of Iran's international obligations.”
5. Wide shot, Security Council
6. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Geng Shuang, Deputy Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the UN:
“History has shown that resorting to force or applying maximum pressure is not the correct approach to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in Gaza and the instability in the Middle East, a breakdown in the Iranian nuclear issue could trigger new regional security crisis, which runs counter to common interest of the international community. We urge the United States to demonstrate political will by responding positively to Iran's proposal to resume talks and committing unequivocally to refrain from further military strikes against Iran. We urge the E3 to engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts and abandon its approach of pushing for sanctions and coercive pressure against Iran.”
7. Wide shot, Security Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Barbara Woodward, UK Permanent Representative to the UN
“UN sanctions targeting Iranian proliferation will be re-imposed this weekend. All Member States are obliged to fully comply with these sanctions, as required by the UN Charter.”
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dorothy Shea, US Deputy Representative to the UN:
“The Russian Federation-China text is a hollow effort to relieve Iran of any accountability for its continued significant non-performance of its nuclear commitments – and all without requiring tangible diplomatic progress. If the Russian Federation and China want to help realize a durable, negotiated outcome on the Iranian nuclear issue, rather than seek to bolster an untenable status quo of flagrant Iranian efforts to undermine the global nonproliferation regimes then they must press leaders in Tehran to take meaningful, immediate steps to fulfill its commitments and obligations, including by fully cooperating with the IAEA.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN:
“We regret the fact that a number of security Council colleagues were unable to summon the courage or the wisdom to support our draft. Their abstentions point to at the minimum to doubts vis a vis the destructive policy that is being carried out by the US, the UK and France to definitively dismantle the nuclear deal and to bury the diplomatic path towards resolving the crisis around it. However, one way or another, through their vote, they are becoming complicit in this. Now turning to those who refused to support our draft. Now, there certainly are no longer any illusions. These countries have definitively demonstrated that all of their assurances about their focus on arriving at a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear program issue for all of these years were mere noise.”
12. Various shots, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran:
“Today's situation is the direct consequence of the United States withdrawal from the JCPOA and the E3 EU failure to take any effective action to uphold the commitments. The United States has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 which have buried it.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran:
“The E3 and the United States acted in bad faith, claiming to support diplomacy while in effect blocking it. Regrettably, E3 chose to follow Washington's whims rather than exercising their independent sovereign discretion. The United States persistent negation of all initiatives to keep the window for diplomacy open proved once again that negotiations with the United States lead to nowhere other than dead end.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran:
“He claimed that the Agency’s inspectors are not in Iran, but this is absolutely wrong. They are now in Iran inspecting our nuclear facilities. According to the agreement I made with Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the IAEA, signed in Cairo.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. Wide shot, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi arriving at the press encounter
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran:
“We have, unfortunately, a terrible experience of negotiating with the United States. We negotiated once in 2015, and we made a good deal. We made a deal that the whole world celebrated it as an achievement of diplomacy. But what happened? Only after one year, the United States withdrew and reimposed sanctions. Again this year, we were asked to negotiate, and we accepted, what happened? Right in the middle of negotiations, the United States decided to attack us, the Israel attacked and the US joined. So we have no reason to trust Americans when it comes to negotiation. So what as His Eminence, the Supreme Leader said is absolutely correct that the negotiation with the United States is, in fact, a pure dead end.”
21. Wide shot, Foreign Minister Araghchi leaving the press encounter
The UN Security Council has voted down an effort by China and Russia to extend sanctions relief to Iran for six months under the nuclear deal – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The so-called “snapback” mechanism remains in force which will see sanctions reimposed on Tehran this weekend, following the termination of the JCPOA.
The result of the vote is 4 in favor (Algeria, China, Pakistan, Russian Federation), 9 against (Denmark, France, Greece, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, United Kingdom, United States), and 2 abstentions (Guyana, Republic of Korea).
Speaking before the vote, French Ambassador Jérôme Bonnafont explained his vote against the resolution. He told Council Members that the E3 (France, United Kingdom and Germany) has asked for Iranian’s “effective” cooperation with the IAEA – “in other words, access of inspectors to the most sensitive Iranian nuclear installations, including photo in Natanz.”
“And while Iran claimed to have signed in Cairo resumption of cooperation with the Agency,” the French Ambassador said, “these highly sensitive sites have not been subject to inspections in violation of Iran's international obligations.”
For his part, Deputy Permanent Representative of China Geng Shuang spoke after the vote. He reminded the Council that “history has shown that resorting to force or applying maximum pressure is not the correct approach to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.”
Ambassador Geng continued, “Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in Gaza and the instability in the Middle East, a breakdown in the Iranian nuclear issue could trigger new regional security crisis, which runs counter to common interest of the international community.”
The Chinese diplomat urged the United States to “demonstrate political will by responding positively to Iran's proposal to resume talks and committing unequivocally to refrain from further military strikes against Iran.”
He also urged the E3 to “engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts and abandon its approach of pushing for sanctions and coercive pressure against Iran.”
For her part, UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward explained, “UN sanctions targeting Iranian proliferation will be re-imposed this weekend. All Member States are obliged to fully comply with these sanctions, as required by the UN Charter.”
US Ambassador Dorothy Shea criticized the Russian Federation-China text as “a hollow effort to relieve Iran of any accountability for its continued significant non-performance of its nuclear commitments – and all without requiring tangible diplomatic progress.”
“If the Russian Federation and China want to help realize a durable, negotiated outcome on the Iranian nuclear issue, rather than seek to bolster an untenable status quo of flagrant Iranian efforts to undermine the global nonproliferation regimes then they must press leaders in Tehran to take meaningful, immediate steps to fulfill its commitments and obligations, including by fully cooperating with the IAEA,” Ambassador Shea added.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation regretted that some Security Council members “were unable to summon the courage or the wisdom to support our draft.”
He said, “Their abstentions point to at the minimum to doubts vis a vis the destructive policy that is being carried out by the US, the UK and France to definitively dismantle the nuclear deal and to bury the diplomatic path towards resolving the crisis around it.”
“One way or another, through their vote, they are becoming complicit in this,” Ambassador Polyanskiy said.
“To those who refused to support our draft,” the Russian diplomat said, “there certainly are no longer any illusions. These countries have definitively demonstrated that all of their assurances about their focus on arriving at a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear program issue for all of these years were mere noise.”
Foreign Minister of Iran Seyed Abbas Araghchi argued, “Today's situation is the direct consequence of the United States withdrawal from the JCPOA and the E3 EU failure to take any effective action to uphold the commitments.”
“The United States has betrayed diplomacy, but it is the E3 which have buried it,” he stressed.
Foreign Minister Araghchi also said, “The E3 and the United States acted in bad faith, claiming to support diplomacy while in effect blocking it.”
“Regrettably, E3 chose to follow Washington's whims rather than exercising their independent sovereign discretion,” he said, adding “the United States persistent negation of all initiatives to keep the window for diplomacy open proved once again that negotiations with the United States lead to nowhere other than dead end.”
Responding to French Ambassador’s earlier comment on Iran’s cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, the Iranian diplomat said the claim that the Agency’s inspectors are not in Iran is “absolutely wrong.”
“They are now in Iran inspecting our nuclear facilities. According to the agreement I made with Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the IAEA, signed in Cairo,” Foreign Minister Araghchi stressed.
Later at a press encounter, the Iranian Foreign Minister said, “We have, unfortunately, a terrible experience of negotiating with the United States.”
He explained, “We negotiated once in 2015, and we made a good deal. We made a deal that the whole world celebrated it as an achievement of diplomacy. But what happened? Only after one year, the United States withdrew and reimposed sanctions. Again this year, we were asked to negotiate, and we accepted, what happened? Right in the middle of negotiations, the United States decided to attack us, the Israel attacked and the US joined.”
“So we have no reason to trust Americans when it comes to negotiation,” Foreign Minister Araghchi said, reiterating “the negotiation with the United States is, in fact, a pure dead end.”
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