Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, spoke to the press after a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting held at the request of some members. Iravani argued that the meeting had no legal basis.
Iravani asserted that UNSC Resolution 2231 ended on October 18, 2025, and had since lost all legal force and operational effect. The ambassador claimed that there was no legal basis for the Secretary-General to submit a report or for the Secretariat to brief the Council.
Snapback reaction to the E3 countries
The Iranian ambassador argued that the E3 group of France, Germany, and the UK had no legal basis to trigger the snapback mechanism. Iravani alleged that these countries had not fulfilled their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Resolution 2231, and had also supported illegal military attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision.
Iravani said, "A party that has materially breached its obligations cannot invoke rights arising from the same legal instrument." He recalled that the UNSC failed to reach a consensus in September 2025 and was unable to adopt a resolution, stressing that this did not validate the E3's claims.
Accusation of attacks against the US and Israel
Ambassador Iravani stated that the root cause of the current situation was the US's illegal withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018. He alleged that the US and Israel had attacked IAEA-supervised nuclear facilities in June 2025 and on February 28, 2026, arguing that these attacks violated Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Iravani claimed that the US President had publicly acknowledged responsibility for these attacks. He also rejected the accusations of the representatives of France, the UK, and Bahrain regarding the situation in the region, criticizing these countries for applying double standards.
New attack allegation in the Persian Gulf
The Iranian ambassador alleged that the US had launched large-scale military attacks on facilities in Iran's southern cities and on some Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf on July 7-8. Iravani argued that these attacks violated the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.
Iravani stressed that under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the responsibility for maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz belongs exclusively to Iran, and that intervention attempts by external actors would breach the memorandum and increase regional tensions. Iravani stated that if the US continued to violate its obligations under the memorandum, Iran would no longer consider itself bound by its own commitments.
