Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution renewing the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring Iran sanctions, with 11 members voting in favour and Pakistan and Somalia abstaining on September 17.

The panel, established under resolution 1929 of 2010, investigates reported cases of non-compliance with the sanctions regime, and its mandate expires on September 26, leaving the measures in force without the body that reports on how they are being implemented.

The vote turns on whether the snapback triggered by European states in 2025 restored the pre-2015 resolutions at all, a dispute that now runs through the Council itself rather than around it.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's permanent representative, said his country regards the 1737 Committee and its panel of experts as illegitimate and rejects Western assertions that snapback was successfully triggered, meaning, in Moscow's reading, that resolutions 1737 of 2006 and 1929 of 2010 were never restored.

He said the draft therefore lacked a legal basis, accused Western states of using the nuclear file to pressure Tehran, and said political and diplomatic efforts respecting Iran's rights were the only route to resolving concerns over the programme.

Sarah MacIntosh, the UK's permanent representative, said the vetoes do not alter existing sanctions on Iranian proliferation, which remain binding on all member states.

She added that Iran has expanded its nuclear programme, failed to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and prevented verification of its enriched uranium stockpile, and that London would pursue a negotiated settlement.

Christina Markus Lassen, Denmark's permanent representative, described the draft as a technical rollover and said the panel provides independent and impartial information supporting implementation of the regime, with its role more important given Iran's failure to meet safeguards obligations. She cited enrichment to 60% and said Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon.

The vote came three days after the US blocked Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami from attending the IAEA General Conference in Vienna under the travel restrictions reinstated by the same snapback.