President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that the United States had offered Iran only a short reprieve from sanctions in return for the country handing over its whole stockpile of enriched uranium, an offer he described as “unacceptable.”
Russian-Chinese Bid Fails at Security Council
- An 11th-hour effort by Iran allies Russia and China to postpone the sanctions until April failed to win enough votes on the Security Council on Friday, meaning the sanctions will take effect at midnight GMT on Saturday.
- Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov accused Western governments of sabotaging diplomacy on Iran.
- He claimed their rejection of the Russian-Chinese bid “finally exposed the West’s policy of sabotaging the pursuit of constructive solutions in the UN Security Council, as well as its desire to extract unilateral concessions from Tehran through blackmail and pressure.”
European Powers Trigger Sanctions Snapback
- Despite Iran allowing inspectors back into some of its nuclear facilities, Western governments stated they saw insufficient progress after a week of high-level diplomacy to justify delaying sanctions.
- European powers triggered the “snapback” mechanism a month ago, accusing Iran of failing to comply with its obligations under the 2015 deal that saw UN sanctions frozen in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Pezeshkian Slams US Sanctions Offer
- President Pezeshkian told reporters in New York that Washington had asked Tehran to relinquish all its enriched uranium in exchange for only a three-month exemption from sanctions.
- The US “wants us to hand over all our enriched uranium to them, and in return they would give us three months” exemption from sanctions, Pezeshkian said, firmly concluding: “This is by no means acceptable.”
