Iran’s Expediency Council has agreed to conditionally join a United Nations convention aimed at preventing and criminalizing the financing of terrorism, the body’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“After holding four public sessions and joint commission meetings, the Expediency Council agreed in today’s session for Iran to join the CFT convention on a conditional basis,” Mohsen Dehnavi wrote on X.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), adopted by the United Nations in 1999, is designed to prevent and criminalize the financing of terrorist activities worldwide.
Iran's Expediency Council, overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, mediates disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, a hard-line body that vets laws and candidates.
The move comes just days after UN sanctions on Iran were reinstated on September 28.
In April, over 150 hardline lawmakers urged the Council to reject the convention.
In a letter to Expediency Council chairman Sadegh Amoli Larijani, they argued that any approval—conditional or not—should wait until the risk of the reimposition of UN triggered by the snapback mechanism is entirely eliminated.
In May, the Council conditionally approved the country’s accession to the Palermo Convention, one of the two key legislative items tied to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards aimed at addressing money laundering and terrorism financing.
An annual US State Department report last December, called Iran the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism for the 39th year running, accusing Tehran of using its allied armed groups to destabilize the Middle East.
Authorities confirmed this week that the MamlouDam, one of five major reservoirs supplying the capital, has fallen below usable levels.
Only 8% of its 250 million cubic meter capacity remains, with storage at 19 million cubic meters -- below the “dead volume” threshold of 28 million.
The facility, built in 2007 east of Tehran, is officially out of operation for the first time, leaving the capital more reliant on other reservoirs already at historic lows.
The crisis extends far beyond Tehran. In northwestern Iran, Lake Urmia, once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake, has lost more than 90% of its volume and surface area.
Environmental experts warned on Wednesday that “salt storms” from the dried lakebed are beginning to hit surrounding provinces, damaging crops, raising health risks, and prompting what officials describe as the early stages of forced relocations from nearby towns and villages.
Lawmakers acknowledge that years of mismanaged agriculture, unchecked groundwater pumping and weak enforcement of water-use reforms have accelerated the decline.
“The lake is like a critical patient in intensive care,” said Reza Hajikarim, head of Iran’s Water Industry Federation, warning that existing plans were not implemented to save the lake. He urged rapid cuts in water-intensive farming and enforcement of ecological water rights, saying “we do not need new solutions, only execution of the old ones.”
“Salt storms from Lake Urmia have now begun, and evacuations are starting in provinces surrounding the lake. The salt storms and rising temperatures caused by the sun’s reflection are among the consequences of Urmia’s desiccation, undermining life and habitability in the region. This is only the beginning,” he added.
Social strains are mounting. In recent weeks, a violent clash over irrigation rights near Urmia left one dead and 13 injured, highlighting how scarcity is fueling local disputes.
Similar unrest erupted earlier this year in central Iran, where farmers damaged a pipeline transferring water from Isfahan to Yazd. Rights groups say protests over blackouts and dry taps in cities such as Sabzevar were also met with arrests and tear gas.
Experts stress the problems are largely man-made. Climatologist Nasser Karami has described the situation as an “engineered drought,” arguing that mismanagement, subsidies for water-intensive crops, and expansion of militarized agriculture -- not climate alone -- lie at the root.
Agriculture consumes over 85% of Iran’s water while contributing less than 12% of GDP, and exports such as pistachios and melons remain state priorities despite groundwater depletion.
Other ecosystems are also under threat. Officials warn that Anzali Wetland on the Caspian coast faces collapse without $300 million in restoration funds, after decades of sewage, sediment and pollution inflows.
Iran’s Meteorological Organization says the country has endured two decades of near-continuous drought, but specialists argue that structural reforms -- diverting water from agriculture to households, modernizing irrigation, reducing waste, and enforcing groundwater limits -- could stabilize supplies.
“Today, the Council agreed to reimpose a number of restrictive measures in relation to Iran's nuclear proliferation activities, that had then been suspended with the entry into force of the Joint Plan of Action (JCPOA or Iran nuclear deal) in 2015,” the Council of the EU said in a press release.
The decision followed the reintroduction of UN sanctions after the Security Council declined to extend relief, triggered on August 28 when France, Germany and the United Kingdom (the E3) said Iran was in “significant non-performance” of its commitments.
The Council said the measures include both UN Security Council sanctions adopted since 2006 and EU autonomous measures. They cover:
- Travel bans and asset freezes for listed individuals and entities, and a prohibition on providing funds or economic resources.
- Economic and financial sanctions, spanning trade, banking and transport.
- Trade restrictions, including bans on imports and transport of Iranian crude oil, natural gas, petrochemical and petroleum products; the sale of energy equipment, gold, precious metals, diamonds, certain naval equipment and software.
- Financial sector measures, including freezing assets of the Central Bank of Iran and major commercial banks.
- Transport restrictions, reinstating measures to bar Iranian cargo flights from EU airports and prohibit maintenance or servicing of Iranian cargo aircraft or vessels carrying prohibited materials.
The Council stressed these steps followed earlier commitments. “In October 2015 the Council adopted declaration 2015/C 345/01 lifting all EU nuclear-related sanctions in accordance with the JCPOA and stressing that the EU would reintroduce sanctions in case of significant non-performance by Iran,” it said.
E3 says Iran left no choice
On Sunday, the E3 foreign ministers said Tehran’s breaches had left no alternative. “We welcome the re-instatement since 20:00 EDT on 27 September of Resolutions 1696, 1737, 1747, 1803, 1835, and 1929 after completion of the snapback process,” they said. “We urge Iran and all states to abide fully by these resolutions.”
The ministers accused Iran of “exceeding all limits on its nuclear program” since 2019, noting it held enriched uranium “48 times the JCPOA limit” and at least 10 significant quantities of highly enriched uranium outside of monitoring. “Iran has no credible civilian justification whatsoever for its HEU stockpile,” they said.
They insisted diplomacy remained possible. “The reimposition of UN sanctions is not the end of diplomacy. We urge Iran to refrain from any escalatory action and to return to compliance with its legally binding safeguards obligations.”
Tehran says no obligation to comply
Iran rejected the move outright. “The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects the claim of the three European countries and the United States regarding the return of previous resolutions that ended under Resolution 2231 in 2015, and emphasizes that no obligation is created for UN member states, including Iran,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
It added: “Any attempt to revive terminated resolutions is legally baseless, morally unacceptable and logically flawed.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately wrote to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Security Council President Sang Jin Kim, saying the alleged return of sanctions was “null and void.”
He urged them “to prevent any attempt to revive the sanctions mechanisms, including the Sanctions Committee and the Panel of Experts.”
Araghchi accused the Europeans of “defaulting on their commitments, misusing the JCPOA dispute settlement process, and even justifying military attacks against safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran.”
Tehran said all nuclear-related restrictions under Resolution 2231 must expire on October 18, 2025. “Iran will not recognize any effort to extend, revive or enforce them after that,” the ministry said.
