The Iranian Foreign Ministry has stated that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 will officially expire on October 18, declaring that all related restrictions on Iran's nuclear program are now null and void. Iran also called on the UN to correct "false claims" regarding the renewal of sanctions.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran issued a statement on Saturday regarding the termination of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, The Caspian Post reports citing Iranian media.
What follows is the text of the statement:
As previously emphasized in Iran’s official positions and statements concerning the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 of July 20, 2015, regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, the ten-year period stipulated in that resolution expires on Saturday, October 18, 2025. From that date, all provisions of the resolution, including the limitations imposed on Iran’s nuclear program and related mechanisms, are to be considered terminated.
Accordingly, the nuclear issue of Iran-which has been under the Security Council’s agenda under the title of “non-proliferation”-must be removed from the Council’s list of matters for consideration. With the expiration of Resolution 2231, Iran’s nuclear program should be treated in the same manner as that of any other non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The stated purpose of placing Iran’s nuclear issue on the Security Council’s agenda was to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities and to prevent any alleged diversion toward weaponization. This objective has been fully achieved. No report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has ever contradicted this fact. Despite persistent political pressure by the three European countries and the United States on the Agency to allege Iranian non-compliance with safeguards obligations, no such determination has ever been made. Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite voluntarily accepting extensive transparency measures under the JCPOA, has remained under unjust sanctions, while it was the three European countries, the European Union, and the United States that violated their own commitments regarding sanctions relief.
Resolution 2231 and its annex, the JCPOA, represented a major achievement of multilateral diplomacy, whose effectiveness was evident in its early years of implementation. Unfortunately, the United States, through its irresponsible withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018, and the three European countries, through their continued failure to fulfill their obligations, undermined this important diplomatic achievement.
The Ministry reiterates the illegality of the recent move by the three European participants in the JCPOA (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany), who-without any legal basis or logical justification and merely in compliance with US pressure-abused the JCPOA’s dispute resolution mechanism to attempt the reinstatement of terminated Security Council resolutions. This was done despite the fact that the United States had unilaterally and unjustifiably withdrawn from the JCPOA in 2018. The Ministry clarifies that the actions of the three European countries have no impact whatsoever on the legal arrangements stipulated in Resolution 2231, including its expiration date. Therefore, the resolution must be considered terminated as scheduled on October 18, 2025.
It also emphasizes that, despite the unlawful actions of the three European countries-who have themselves been in “substantial non-performance” of their obligations since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018 and are therefore legally disqualified from invoking the dispute resolution mechanism-the UN Security Council, due to the explicit opposition of its two permanent members, China and Russia, has made no decision to reinstate any of the terminated resolutions.
Based on this, Iran considers the confrontational measures by Germany, the UK, and France-persistent violators of the JCPOA who acted in bad faith and without following the required legal procedures to revive canceled Security Council resolutions-as devoid of any legal, procedural, or executive validity. The UN Security Council Secretariat is not authorized to endorse or recognize such illegal actions.
The statement stresses that, as reflected in the joint communications by Iran, China, and Russia to the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council has made no decision authorizing the Secretariat to draw any independent conclusion regarding the reinstatement of the terminated resolutions. Such authority lies exclusively with the Security Council itself.
Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran calls upon the UN Secretary-General, in accordance with Article 100 of the UN Charter, to immediately correct the false information posted on the United Nations website concerning the alleged “reinstatement” of terminated resolutions against Iran and to prevent further confusion in the Council’s legal and procedural processes.
Iran also deems any re-establishment of Security Council sanctions mechanisms, including the Sanctions Committee and the Panel of Experts, as illegal, and expects the Secretariat to promptly remove all such claims from the Security Council’s website.
This is particularly necessary given the fundamental ambiguity surrounding the purpose, validity, and termination mechanisms of the now-defunct resolutions.
All UN Member States are expected-considering the unlawful nature of the actions by the three European countries, their evident procedural flaws, and the absence of any Security Council decision to extend Resolution 2231 or to reinstate terminated resolutions-to refrain from granting any legal or practical effect to the claims of the three European countries and the United States regarding the reimposition of previously terminated resolutions (including 1696, 1737, 1747, 1803, 1835, and 1929), and to regard Resolution 2231 as terminated.
The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program and strongly condemns the Security Council’s failure to denounce the military aggression committed by the Israeli regime and the United States against Iran’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, including attacks on Iran’s safeguarded peaceful nuclear facilities. These brutal and unlawful attacks, carried out in the midst of diplomatic negotiations with the United States, represent a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a major blow to international law and to the integrity of the global non-proliferation regime.
These aggressions resulted in the martyrdom and injury of several thousand Iranian citizens, the destruction of thousands of residential units, and significant damage to Iran’s peaceful nuclear infrastructure. They also disrupted Iran’s regular cooperation with the IAEA. Efforts by Iran to restore constructive engagement-culminating in the Cairo Understanding-were undermined by the irresponsible and politically motivated actions of the three European countries who abused the JCPOA dispute mechanism.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its appreciation to China and Russia, as permanent members of the Security Council, for their consistent opposition to the misuse of the JCPOA dispute mechanism by the three European countries, and also to Algeria and Pakistan, as non-permanent members of the Council, for rejecting this illegal initiative. The Ministry also commends the decisions of South Korea and Guyana, the two other non-permanent members, for not endorsing the European move.
Furthermore, Iran extends its gratitude to the Member States of the Non-Aligned Movement, which, in the Final Declaration of the 19th Ministerial Meeting in Kampala (Uganda), emphasized the termination of Resolution 2231 in accordance with its paragraph 8 and the need for full respect of its provisions and timetable. Appreciation is also expressed to the Members of the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter in New York for taking a similar stance.
The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms its unwavering commitment to diplomacy while firmly insisting on the legitimate rights and lawful interests of the Iranian nation in all fields, including its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
