Iran warns of nuclear treaty exit over Western push for renewed sanctions

Iran’s Ambassador to the UN, Saeed Iravani, has warned that the country will withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions are reimposed under the snapback mechanism.

The warning came in a letter sent by Iravani to the Security Council on June 11, according to an Iranian media outlet, cited by Caliber.Az.

The letter was issued in response to ongoing efforts by the UK, France, and Germany—collectively known as the E3—to revive UN sanctions against Tehran. Alongside the United States, the E3 has submitted an anti-Iran resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a bid to to prompt the re-imposition of the bans.

The Western powers accuse Iran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons—an allegation the IAEA has never substantiated, despite conducting some of the most comprehensive inspections in its history.

Iravani condemned the move as a “legally baseless and politically reckless act” with potentially grave consequences for both regional and global security. He warned that Tehran would take a “proportionate response,” which could include “starting the process of withdrawal from the NPT in line with Article X of the Treaty.”

Article X allows a state party to withdraw from the NPT if it determines that "extraordinary events" have jeopardised its supreme national interests.

Iravani also rejected as “utterly baseless” the E3’s claims that Iran had shifted its defensive doctrine to allow for the development of nuclear weapons. He described the Western initiative as a “deliberate attempt to manufacture a crisis.”

“Iran's nuclear policy is unequivocally peaceful, rooted in both its legal obligations under the NPT and a deeply held religious and strategic defensive doctrine that prohibits weapons of mass destruction,” the ambassador stated.

He reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to pursuing a negotiated resolution that guarantees the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

By Khagan Isayev