🎙 Excerpt from statement by Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at a UNSC briefing (New York, 10 September 2026) 💬 If our Western colleagues were genuinely concerned about upholding the global non-proliferation regime, they would explicitly identify the true source of direct threats thereto. Not only did the United States provoke the crisis surrounding the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by unilaterally withdrawing from it in 2018, but ultimately resorted to the use of force. Together with Israel, the US carried out a series of strikes against Iran’s peaceful nuclear infrastructure under IAEA safeguards. These unlawful and reckless actions by Washington and West Jerusalem, which could trigger a large-scale catastrophe with unpredictable consequences for the entire Middle East, constituted an attempt to undermine the authority of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the safeguards system underpinning it. It was precisely these actions that prevented IAEA inspectors from carrying out their verification activities on Iranian territory without any interruptions. But even despite this, Tehran has expressed its readiness to continue its engagement with the IAEA Secretariat on this matter. Nevertheless, not only do the European delegations refuse to call a spade a spade, they also either pretend that nothing has happened and nothing is happening, or worse still, they support aggressive actions against Iran and its nuclear facilities while blaming Tehran for the current situation. Read in full