On September 19, the UN Security Council voted on whether to launch Iran¡¯s rapid reinstatement mechanism. The vote resulted in 4 votes in favour, 9 against and 2 abstentions. Since the number of votes in favour of continued exemption from the sanctions did not reach 9 votes, the sanctions exempted from the Iran nuclear agreement will be resumed on 28 this month.

The Iranian nuclear agreement and the Security Council resolutions contain a mechanism known as ¡°snapback¡± that allows any party to the agreement to resume U.N. sanctions if it considers Iran to have ¡°serious non-compliance¡±.

On August 28, the German Foreign Minister wrote to the Security Council announcing Iran¡¯s ¡°serious non-fulfilment¡± of its commitments, triggering a ¡°rapid recovery¡± mechanism.The letter said its decision was based on ¡°clear factual evidence¡±, but Iran denied the allegations and considered the process of the European three countries unlawful.

On September 8, South Korea, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, submitted the draft on the basis of resolution 2231, with only one implementation paragraph, namely, ¡°Deciding to ¡®continue terminating¡¯ the previous resolutions of the Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran (from resolution 1696 of July 31, 2006 to resolution 2224 of June 9, 2015)¡± if adopted, the draft would extend the exemption from sanctions on Iran.

Despite the failure of the Security Council to pass the sanctions exemption resolution, negotiations on the issue could still take place during the general debate of the UN General Assembly next week.