UN Security Council Sanctions on Iran

The UN Security Council (UNSC) imposed a layered sanctions regime on Iran in response to concerns that its uranium enrichment program could be diverted to weapons purposes, following referral of the file by the IAEA Board of Governors in February 2006.

The principal resolutions, all adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, were:

• Resolution 1696 (2006) – demanded Iran suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.
• Resolution 1737 (2006) – imposed the first binding sanctions: bans on transfer of nuclear and ballistic-missile-related items, and asset freezes on listed persons and entities. Established the 1737 Sanctions Committee.
• Resolution 1747 (2007) – added an embargo on Iranian arms exports and expanded designations.
• Resolution 1803 (2008) – introduced cargo inspections and travel vigilance.
• Resolution 1835 (2008) – reaffirmed prior demands without adding new measures.
• Resolution 1929 (2010) – the most expansive: banned Iranian investment in sensitive nuclear activities abroad, imposed a near-total conventional arms embargo on Iran, tightened financial restrictions, and created a Panel of Experts to monitor implementation.

These measures were terminated by Resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed between Iran and the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US) on 14 July 2015. Resolution 2231 replaced the prior regime with a narrower set of restrictions, including a conventional arms embargo (expired October 2020) and ballistic missile-related restrictions (expired October 2023), plus a snapback mechanism allowing any JCPOA participant to reimpose the pre-2015 sanctions.

The US withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions. In 2020 it attempted to trigger snapback; other UNSC members rejected its standing to do so. The snapback procedure was invoked in 2025 by the E3, leading to reimposition of the pre-2015 UN sanctions architecture.