What are all the sanctions Iran is under?

What Happened

In September 2025, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the 'snapback' mechanism under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, officially reimposing six previous UN Security Council resolutions that had imposed sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear and military programmes. The reinstated measures include a ban on conventional arms transfers to and from Iran, a ban on supplying materials, equipment, goods and technology that could contribute to nuclear and uranium enrichment activities, restrictions on ballistic missile activities capable of delivering nuclear weapons, asset freezes and trade controls linked to nuclear and missile programmes, and targeted sanctions against dozens of designated individuals and entities. The United States this month imposed a new set of sanctions enforced by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), comprising a broad trade embargo, secondary sanctions on foreign entities in sectors including digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping, sectoral sanctions on energy and shipping, and designations of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members and other groups as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, along with freezes on billions of dollars in Iranian assets. The European Union, United Kingdom, and countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland maintain overlapping sanctions covering nuclear-related goods, oil and petroleum trade, financial transactions, arms embargoes, and human rights-related asset freezes and travel bans.

Key Actors

Why It Matters

The September 2025 snapback restores UN sanctions that had been suspended under the JCPOA framework, closing a key diplomatic path and reimposing multilateral restrictions on Iran's nuclear and missile programmes at a time of active regional conflict. US secondary sanctions extend enforcement extraterritorially, aiming to isolate Iran from the international financial system across digital assets, gold, aviation and shipping, while IRGC designations formalise terrorism-related restrictions on Iran's primary external operations force. The overlapping US, EU and UK regimes reinforce economic pressure but also create compliance burdens that can heighten friction with countries still trading with Iran.

Watch For

Monitor implementation of the reimposed UN sanctions, including whether UN member states enforce the arms embargo, nuclear-related export bans and asset freezes; the EU's regular review cycle of Iran sanctions; and further US Treasury OFAC designations against Iranian entities and foreign facilitators. Watch for Iran's diplomatic and enrichment-related responses, as well as any challenges by Russia or China to the E3-triggered snapback.