U.S. creates independent panel on Iran sanctions after Russia and China veto at the UN

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, has announced the creation of an independent panel to monitor sanctions on Iran, after Russia and China vetoed the creation of a UN panel, as Al Jazeera reports. “We will create our own panel,” Waltz said after his speech at the UN General Assembly.

The Chinese-Russian veto strikes at the sanctions mechanism restored under the 2015 Security Council resolution, reimposed last month after Britain, France and Germany triggered the snapback mechanism. Russia and China had previously voted in favour of six similar monitoring resolutions.

In a video published on X, Waltz invited member states to join the new panel, “to ensure that Iran never develops nuclear weapons.”

The move deepens the split in the Security Council over the Iranian file: the West seeks strict monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear programme, while Moscow and Beijing consider sanctions policy an obstacle to diplomacy. The American panel, outside UN structures, is expected to gather Washington’s allies to keep pressure on Iran.