The United Nations (UN) has reinstated sanctions on Iran, as reported here by this newspaper, reopening questions about the credibility of global institutions and the future of non-proliferation.

According to Darya Dolzikova, a Senior Research Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) – a London-based defence and security think-tank founded in 1831 – the “snapback” sanctions reimpose pre-2015 restrictions. These include an arms embargo, bans on transfers of nuclear and missile technology, and targeted financial sanctions. “The bulk of the economic pressure on Iran comes from US unilateral sanctions,” Dolzikova wrote on RUSI’s website, adding that the new UN measures will have “limited material impact.”

The response of the great powers has highlighted deeper fault lines. Russia and China have rejected the legality of snapback, even though the mechanism was agreed in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and enshrined in a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution. Dolzikova described this as: “a new low for the legitimacy of the UNSC sanctions mechanism and the work of the Council more broadly.”

Iran has threatened to exit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in response, with draft legislation already prepared in its parliament. While it still a signatory to the NPT and its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) Dolzikova warned that: “allowing Iran to negotiate on its own terms over what aspects of its CSA it will abide by and which it can disregard, this would set a dangerous precedent for other states who may wish to do the same.”

The Security Council has always struggled to enforce sanctions consistently, but analysts note that outright refusal by permanent members to accept its decisions is unprecedented. Dolzikova cautioned that this will: “do irreparable damage to the legitimacy of the Council and its decisions going forward.”

The outcome is that enforcement falls back on unilateral sanctions and regional power plays. For Iran, the lack of unity among world powers signals it still has strong backers in Moscow and Beijing. For the international system, the episode illustrates how far institutions have drifted from their founding purpose.