Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution seeking to extend the mandate of an independent panel monitoring international sanctions on Iran, effectively blocking continued UN oversight of sanctions violations.

The resolution received 11 votes in favour, while Pakistan and Somalia abstained. The vetoes by Russia and China prevented the 15-member council from extending the monitoring mandate

This included the return of an independent panel of experts to monitor and report to the 15-member Security ⁠Council on violations and ⁠recommend further action. However, the council has been operating without a panel of experts on Iran for the past year because it has been unable to agree on their appointment, a move that must be done by consensus.

Russia and China then vetoed on Thursday a resolution that would have extended ⁠the mandate for the independent monitoring of sanctions. Eleven council members voted in favor, while Pakistan and Somalia abstained.

“Without an independent panel of experts, this council loses its principal source of impartial, evidence-based reporting on sanctions violations, creating a monitoring gap that only benefits the Iranian regime and those who profit from evading those measures,” Deputy US Ambassador Jennifer Locetta told the council after the vote.

The United States and Israel went to war with Iran seven months ago, arguing that their aim was to ⁠stop Tehran ⁠from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in 2018 during his first term in office, describing the pact as “the worst deal ever.”

Russia and China accused their Western counterparts of politicizing the Security Council on Thursday.

“We strongly urge Western colleagues to stop their very dangerous actions on the Iran front, which threaten further complication of settling of the crisis in the Arabian Gulf,” Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council. “The only way to resolve disagreements and to alleviate concerns … pertaining to the Iranian nuclear program is through political and diplomatic efforts.”