Russia and China have circulated a new UN draft resolution to delay the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran, a Wall Street Journal correspondent reported, adding that it still faces long odds of approval despite tilting toward Western positions.
A similar resolution had been drafted by Russia in late August calling for a six-month technical extension of Resolution 2231, which underpins the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The original draft's text, seen by Iran International, said that the Security Council would suspend "any substantive consideration of matters related to resolution 2231 and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)" during the extension.
That clause led observers to view the draft as doomed, since it effectively deprived France, Britain and Germany (the E3) of their right to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism during the six-month period.
Now the new resolution "eliminates the clause that was seen previously as outlawing snapback if UNSCR2231 was extended," according to Wall Street Journal's Laurence Norman.
However, the new draft too "is very unlikely to make the cut," he said in a post on X on Tuesday.
"The problem is twofold. It leaves ambiguous whether under this new draft, snapback would in fact be allowed ... That ambiguity will need clarifying if it has any chance of advancing."
The "far bigger problem", Norman said, is that "it makes no demands of Iran to get a six-month extension, contradicting the very clear US/E3 stance."
It is not yet clear when the new Chinese-Russian draft resolution will be tabled.
It "will ultimately depend on whether Russia is interested in a resolution that could actually win agreement. Or is simply focused on a blame game where they can say they sought to avert crisis but the E3/US refused," he said.
The snapback mechanism, created under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, allows any signatory to the now mostly lapsed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to restore previous UN sanctions if Iran is judged to be in major violation.
Once invoked, sanctions return automatically after 30 days unless the Council votes to extend relief. The provision expires in October 2025.
On August 28, Britain, France and Germany formally triggered the process, citing Iran’s accumulation of highly enriched uranium.
On Monday, Iran, Russia and China sent a joint letter to the UN Secretary-General and Security Council slamming European attempts to restore international sanctions on Tehran, Iran's foreign minister wrote on X.
Abbas Araghchi, who signed the letter with his Russian and Chinese counterparts at a foreign ministers’ summit in Tianjin in China, said the powers were united in condemning Europe's "politically destructive" move.
Larijani, a former parliament speaker and veteran nuclear negotiator, was appointed last month to lead the powerful body in charge of key security decisions, where he also holds a parallel role as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's personal representative.
His mandate places him at the center of Tehran’s decision-making apparatus following a 12-day war with Israel in June, and his comments marked the most dovish yet on renewing US diplomacy by a top security official since the conflict.
“The path for negotiations with the US is not closed; yet these are the Americans who only pay lip service to talks and do not come to the table — and they wrongfully blame Iran for it,” Larijani wrote on X, posting on behalf of the council.
"WE INDEED PURSUE RATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path which negates any talks."
Speaking separately to Iranian media managers, Larijani dismissed Western demands that Iran scale back its missile program as unacceptable.
“The enemy says we must back down from our missile capability. Which honorable Iranian today would want to hand over his weapon to the enemy?” he said. “We also see negotiations as the path to resolving the nuclear issue. But by raising issues such as missiles, (it shows) they don’t want talks to take shape.”
His remarks underscore Tehran’s refusal to link missiles to nuclear diplomacy. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) restricted Iran’s nuclear program but did not directly address missiles. However, UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the deal, included language urging restraint on missile development.
Larijani argued that Washington is using the missile issue to derail diplomacy.
“At present, the Americans do not want to negotiate. After all, the war broke out at a time when we were in the middle of negotiations,” he said, referring to the recent 12-day war with Israel.
Larijani's comments come amid escalating nuclear tensions. Britain, France and Germany — the E3 — have triggered the UN’s “snapback” mechanism under Resolution 2231, seeking to restore pre-2015 sanctions over what they call Iran’s serious non-compliance.
Tehran, backed by Russia and China, has rejected the move as null and void. Iranian lawmakers have even threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if sanctions are reimposed.
The SNSC chief’s statement on Tuesday called restrictions on Iran’s missile program “unrealizable,” signaling that while Tehran insists negotiations remain possible, it will not make concessions on what it considers a core pillar of its defense doctrine.
The sanctions target Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra’i, based in the United Arab Emirates, along with his firms Babylon Navigation DMCC and Galaxy Oil FZ LLC, and nine Liberia-flagged tankers.
Washington said the network covertly blended Iranian and Iraqi oil through ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf and in Iraqi ports, marketing it as solely Iraqi in origin.
The Treasury estimated the operation generated about $300 million annually for both Iran and al-Samarra’i.
It accused the group of using shell companies in the Marshall Islands to obscure ownership of vessels and employing tactics such as night transfers and location spoofing to hide activity.
“Iraq cannot become a safe haven for terrorists, which is why the United States is working to counter Iran’s influence in the country,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“By targeting Iran’s oil revenue stream, Treasury will further degrade the regime’s ability to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies.”
The measures follow sanctions announced in July against another network accused of blending Iranian and Iraqi oil.
For two consecutive years, Chinese records show imports of “Iraqi” oil exceeding Iraq’s declared shipments by around 100,000 barrels per day—worth more than $2.5 billion annually.
The gap has grown since 2021, suggesting a persistent pattern of disguised flows, according to experts.
Iraq’s oil minister Hayyan Abdul-Ghani acknowledged earlier this year that Iranian tankers were using forged Iraqi documents and said the matter had been reported to the United States.
“I never said we sent signals to America and they did not respond,” ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran.
His comments followed an exclusive report by Iran International, which said senior Iranian officials admitted in private meetings that the White House ignored at least 15 messages from Tehran seeking renewed negotiations.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told told editors of Iranian print and online media in a private meeting on Saturday that US officials had disregarded Iran’s outreach. In a separate session, deputy foreign minister for legal affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran had used different channels to contact Washington but received no reply.
Elsewhere during his press conference, Baghaei added that Iran remained skeptical about US intentions. “In relation to America, we must always consider the reality that we were confronted with Israeli aggression and US support in the middle of a negotiating process. Certainly, we cannot talk about the future without taking past experiences into account.”
Baghaei accused Washington of undermining diplomacy. “In the past ten years America has disrupted diplomatic processes two or three times. These instances show that Washington did not have goodwill from the beginning,” he said.
The European powers -- Britain, France and Germany -- triggered the 30-day snapback process last week, demanding that Iran resume talks with the United States, allow full IAEA inspections, and clarify its stockpiles of enriched uranium or face restored UN sanctions.
Baghaei also addressed remarks he made in an interview with the Guardian suggesting Iran was ready to reduce enrichment levels to the 3.67% cap under the 2015 nuclear deal if a comprehensive agreement was reached.
On Tuesday, he said: “I explained that if the other side fulfills its commitments, we will do the same. But we are very far from that point.”
Washington has insisted Iran halt all uranium enrichment on its territory, a condition repeatedly rejected by Iranian leaders as a red line. Baghaei repeated that position, describing Europe’s conditions as lacking seriousness and goodwill.
