TEHRAN – In a move that appeared to signal unity, Iran, Russia, and China jointly denounced the European powers' (E3) attempt to trigger the JCPOA’s so-called snapback mechanism as “legally baseless” and “politically destructive.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with his counterparts Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov, solidified this unwavering stance in a signed letter at the SCO summit in Tianjin, China.

Araghchi emphasized that the E3's actions are void, as they deliberately ignore the sequence of events: the U.S.'s initial violation of the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, followed by Europe's “shameful” alignment with unlawful US sanctions instead of upholding its own obligations. These facts, Araghchi declared, must be central to any Security Council discussion.

The joint declaration also underscored the inseparability of rights and obligations under international law, emphasizing that parties failing to honor their commitments cannot claim benefits from agreements they actively undermine. It asserted that the European proposition “betrays the Security Council's mission”, transforming it into an instrument of coercion rather than a guardian of global stability. “The urgent task before us is to restore international law and build upon it to give diplomacy the ground it needs to succeed,” the declaration read.