Russia vetoed on Tuesday a UN draft resolution presented by Britain that would have pressured Iran over its failure to block supplies of missiles to Yemen’s Houthi movement.
The text, strongly supported by the United
States, won 11 favorable votes at the 15-member Security Council but was blocked by Russia’s veto.
China and Kazakhstan abstained, while Bolivia also voted against the measure. Nine votes and no vetoes from the five permanent council members — Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States — are required to adopt resolutions at the Security Council.
After the veto, the council unanimously adopted a Russian-drafted measure that extended for one year the
sanctions regime against Yemen, but that text made no mention of Iran.
Britain had sought to include in its measure an expression of “particular concern” from the council over a UN report that found Iran had violated the 2015 arms embargo on Yemen.
The report by a UN panel of experts in January concluded that Iran was in violation after determining that missiles fired by the Huthis at Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran.
After hours of negotiations to try to reach a compromise, Russia made clear it had strong reservations about the findings of the report and would not support a draft resolution that mentioned them.