Russia and China veto watered-down UN resolution aimed at reopening the
Strait of Hormuz
[April 08, 2026]
By EDITH M. LEDERER and FARNOUSH AMIRI
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a U.N. Security
Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that had been
repeatedly watered down in hopes those two countries would abstain.
The vote — 11-2, with two abstentions from Pakistan and Colombia — took
place shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented
threat that a “whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran does not
open the strategic waterway and make a deal. But late Tuesday, less than
two hours before the deadline he set, Trump pulled back his threat.
Trump said he would suspend the threatened attack for two weeks provided
Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of
Hormuz. One-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through the
strait, and Iran’s stranglehold during the war has sent energy prices
soaring.
Iran accepted the two-week ceasefire and said passage through the strait
during this period would be allowed under Iranian military management.
Trump said Iran has proposed a “workable” 10-point plan for ending the
war.
Russia and China strongly defended their opposition to the U.N.
resolution, both citing Trump's threat to end Iran’s civilization as
confirmation that the proposal would have given the U.S. and Israel
“carte blanche for continued aggression," as Russian envoy Vassily
Nebenzia put it.
Nebenzia and China’s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said the resolution
failed to capture the root causes and full picture of the conflict by
not showing that America and its closest ally started the now spiraling
war.
Fu said in his statement that resolution was “highly susceptible to
misinterpretation or even abuse,” and if it were adopted ”would send a
wrong message and have serious, very serious consequences."
Russia and China immediately followed up by circulating a rival
resolution, seen by The Associated Press, which urged all parties to
halt military activities and condemned attacks on civilians and civilian
infrastructure. Nebenzia told reporters it was already in a form that
could be put to a vote.
,The foreign minister of Bahrain, which authored the draft, assailed the
U.N.'s most powerful body for not taking action and allowing the
international community to be “held hostage to economic blackmail" from
Iran.
Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said failing to adopt the resolution
sends “the signal that the threat to international waterways can pass
without any decisive action by the international organization
responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
Al-Zayani told reporters that Gulf countries will intensify diplomatic
efforts to deter Iran's attacks and safeguard freedom of navigation.
But Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. thanked its allies on the 15-member
council for refusing to adopt the resolution.
“The text unjustifiably and misleadingly portrays Iran’s lawful measures
in the Strait of Hormuz, which have been taken in the exercise of its
inherent right of self-defense in accordance with the UN Charter, as
threats to international peace and security,” Amir-Saeid Iravani said in
his statement.
How the resolution evolved
It’s doubtful the resolution, even if it had been adopted, would have
impacted the war, now in its sixth week, because it was been
significantly weakened to try to get Moscow and Beijing to abstain
rather than veto it.
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The United Nations logo is seen inside the 79th session of the
United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP
Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
The initial Gulf proposal would have authorized countries to use
“all necessary means” — U.N. wording that would include military
action — to ensure transit through the Strait of Hormuz and deter
attempts to close it.
The United States, which had supported the draft from its original
form, assailed the countries that objected to the resolution.
“No one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at
gunpoint," Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said of
Iran, “but today, Russia and China did tolerate it.” He said in his
statement: “They sided with a regime that seeks to intimidate the
Gulf into submission, even as it brutalizes its own people during a
national internet blackout, for daring to imagine dignity or
freedom.”
After Russia, China and France, all veto-wielding members of the
Security Council, expressed opposition to approving the use of
force, the resolution was revised to eliminate all references to
offensive action. It would have authorized only “all defensive means
necessary.” A vote had been expected on Saturday.
But instead the resolution was further weakened to eliminate any
reference to Security Council authorization — which is an order for
action — and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz. Previous
drafts had included adjacent waters.
The resolution vetoed Tuesday would have “strongly” encouraged
countries to coordinate their efforts to ensure the safety of
navigation across the Strait of Hormuz, including escorting merchant
and commercial vessels.
The resolution also demanded that Iran stop impeding freedom of
navigation through the strait and attacking civilian infrastructure.
Why it was Bahrain pushing the UN resolution
In response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks beginning on Feb. 28,
Iran has targeted hotels, airports, residential buildings and other
civilian infrastructure in more than 10 countries, including the
Islamic Republic's Gulf neighbors, some of the world’s major
exporters of oil and natural gas.
Iran's blockade in the strait is seen by Gulf nations as an
existential threat. Bahrain, a Gulf nation that hosts the U.S. Fifth
Fleet and is the Security Council’s Arab representative and its
president this month, has been pressing for U.N. action.
In response to Iran’s strikes against its Gulf neighbors, the
Security Council adopted a Bahrain-sponsored resolution on March 11
condemning the “egregious attacks” and calling for Tehran to
immediately halt its strikes.
That resolution, adopted by a vote of 13-0 with Russia and China
abstaining, also condemned Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz as
a threat to international peace and security and called for an
immediate end to all actions blocking shipping.
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