Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Chargé d’Affaires of Russia’s UN Mission, denounced the E3 decision for a snapback of sanctions on Iran to reporters at the UN yesterday. He announced that Russia and China put “into blue” a draft Security Council resolution (during the final stage of the drafting process, a draft resolution is printed in blue ink) which will extend the UNSC resolution 2231 for six months and which “Urges all initial participants of the JCPOA to immediately resume negotiations on the matters related to the resolution 2231 and the JCPOA.”
“Now the world is at a crossroads,” Polyanskiy said. “It’s quite clear. One option is peace, diplomacy, goodwill, normal human contact. Another option is a kind of diplomacy at the barrel of the gun, hence extortion and blackmail, and all other things. The second option is clearly represented by the action that was triggered today by France, the U.K. and Germany.” He added that “this move by the European countries, in our view, has absolutely no legal bearing, because they were not implementing resolution 2231 in good faith.”
The E3 action “will affect the overall climate over the issues related to the Iranian nuclear program,” Polyanskiy continued. “It will complicate international cooperation in this regard. Thus, we think that the option proposed by Russia and China today is the way that everybody should follow in order to avoid complications, in order to avoid serious problems for international peace and security, in order to give some chance and breathing space for diplomacy.
