On December 18, a regular session of the United Nations Security Council convened to address nuclear non-proliferation and review the implementation of Resolution 2231 concerning Iran’s nuclear program.
During the session, representatives of three permanent Security Council members—the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—each underscored a warning from the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, who stated, “Time is of the essence.”
The U.S. representative said, “when you look into the forces behind some of today’s most devastating and destabilizing conflicts, you see one country’s name pop up – over and over again: Iran.”
The U.K. representative said, “With UNSCR 2231 set to expire next October, we are reaching a critical juncture. We will take every diplomatic step to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, including the triggering of snapback if necessary.”
The French representative said, “Iran has continued to escalate its nuclear program, in violation of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA)… Today, Iran reportedly possesses four ‘significant stockpiles,’ meaning four times the amount of fissile material beyond which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear weapon cannot be excluded. These enrichment levels and activities have no credible civilian justification. Furthermore, Iran continues to increase its enriched uranium production capacity by installing thousands of advanced centrifuges, including at the underground Fordow site, where such activities are prohibited under the JCPoA… The nuclear escalation in which Iran is engaged is highly dangerous. It undermines the substance of the JCPoA and obstructs the resumption of a diplomatic pathway to address international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. It threatens international peace and security and therefore requires the attention of the Security Council.”
Before the Security Council session, the U.K., France, and Germany issued a joint statement in which they said, “Iran’s stockpile of High Enriched Uranium has also reached unprecedented levels, again without any credible civilian justification. It gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
Berlin, London, and Paris raised the possibility of using the snapback mechanism in the 2015 nuclear agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which allows signatories to reimpose sanctions that had been lifted.
As the Trump administration is set to take office in the United States next month, and with the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and the unraveling of the regional strategic depth of Iran’s regime, the ruling mullahs face a crisis, signaling a significant shift in regional and international dynamics.
Moreover, with the October 2025 expiration of Resolution 2231’s validity approaching, the activation of the snapback sanctions in response to years of violations by Tehran has become a serious option. The time for Europe’s unjustifiable appeasement and hesitation in using this mechanism is running out. Consequently, after years of exploiting Western leniency, the regime now faces the real threat of the snapback sanctions.
This is why the regime authorities and analysts are warning in various ways that “the situation is dire,” urging regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei to rethink the policies he has pursued thus far. Whenever Khamenei has perceived a serious risk of decisive action from the international community, he has resorted to deceit and manipulative maneuvers to buy time and continue covertly advancing towards nuclear weapons, which he considers essential for the survival and perpetuation of the regime.
In recent weeks, an increasing number of regime officials and parliament members have stressed that the survival of the regime hinges on a “shift in nuclear doctrine” and accelerating progress toward acquiring nuclear weapons.
The international community is also at a critical crossroads: either it continues the shameful policy of appeasement, accepting the disastrous consequences of the octopus of fundamentalism and the central banker of terrorism acquiring the most dangerous weapon, or it heeds the warnings of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who reiterated again on November 20 at the European Parliament, “The long-overdue activation of the snapback mechanism and the six UN Security Council resolutions is the first urgent and necessary step. Nevertheless, the ultimate solution for getting rid of this evil dictatorship is regime change at the hands of the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance.”
