UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council on Monday afternoon adopted by a vote of 13-0 with two abstentions a sweeping resolution that codifies the Islamabad ceasefire framework, places the United Nations observer mission in the Strait of Hormuz on a twelve-month mandate, and instructs the secretary-general to convene a standing political consultation on Persian Gulf security beginning in July — the most consequential council action on Middle East peace and security in more than a decade and the diplomatic spine that supporters said the post-war architecture has lacked since the guns fell silent on April 15.

Russia and China both abstained rather than veto, a procedural choice that surprised few diplomats in the room but that Western officials described as the central question hanging over the four weeks of negotiations that preceded the vote. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, in a thirteen-minute floor statement before the vote, criticized the resolution’s language on sanctions sequencing and its reliance on what he called “the architecture of a coalition that prosecuted an aggressive war,” but said Moscow would not block the text “out of respect for the peoples of the region who have suffered enough and who have asked, through their own governments, for this council to act.”

Chinese Ambassador Fu Cong was briefer. He said Beijing’s abstention reflected “serious reservations” about the verification annex and about provisions empowering the secretary-general to designate sanctions-relief milestones, but added that “the Chinese delegation will not stand in the way of a text that has been formally endorsed by the foreign ministers of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt and Türkiye.” His statement was the first time a Chinese permanent representative had publicly aligned with the Islamabad track since the framework was signed on April 12.

Resolution 2787, drafted jointly by France, the United Kingdom and Pakistan and co-sponsored by twenty-one other member states, runs to fourteen operative paragraphs. It “welcomes and endorses” the Islamabad framework in its entirety; mandates the existing 270-personnel UN observer mission in the Strait of Hormuz, designated UNOSOH, for an initial period of twelve months with a review mechanism in March 2027; establishes a Persian Gulf Political Consultation, to convene first in Vienna on July 14 with a permanent secretariat in Geneva; instructs the secretary-general to designate a Special Coordinator for Sanctions Sequencing within thirty days; and authorizes the Marseille Compact secretariat to disburse pledged reconstruction funds under arrangements consistent with the council’s existing sanctions regimes.

The resolution stops short of lifting any sanctions on Iran outright, a point that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi noted in a statement issued from Tehran minutes after the vote. “The Islamic Republic welcomes the council’s endorsement of the framework but observes that the work of dismantling the sanctions architecture, as agreed in Islamabad, has only been organized today, not begun,” Araghchi said. He confirmed that Iran would send its deputy foreign minister to the Vienna consultation in July and that the foreign ministry would propose “a calendar of reciprocal steps” within ten days.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who voted yes on behalf of the United States, called the resolution “an imperfect text that we judged on balance to serve American interests and to lock in the gains paid for in American blood.” Speaking to reporters in the Security Council stakeout after the vote, Rubio said the administration’s red lines on the Iranian centrifuge stockpile and on Hezbollah’s residual capabilities were “preserved in the operative language, not merely the preamble,” and emphasized that the resolution does not modify any existing U.S. sanctions authority. He acknowledged “active and continuing” consultations with senators who have expressed concern about the sanctions-coordinator provision.

The vote concluded a negotiating process that began the week of the Marseille donor conference and that turned in earnest after a series of trilateral consultations among the U.S., French and British missions in New York between May 4 and May 8. Diplomats familiar with the talks said the verification annex — which incorporates the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitoring calendar by reference rather than rewriting it — was finalized only on Sunday evening, after a phone call between Rubio and his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, and a parallel exchange between the British and Chinese permanent representatives.

“This was not a resolution that anyone on the council loved,” said Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group. “It was the resolution the council could pass. The Russian and Chinese abstentions are the story — they are saying, we will not lend our affirmative vote to a Western-led architecture, but we will not pay the price of vetoing a text the regional capitals have already signed up to. That is a meaningful concession.”

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who flew to New York for the vote in his capacity as co-penholder, told the council that his government considered the resolution “the legal and political insurance policy on the Islamabad framework.” Dar, whose ministry hosted the talks that produced the ceasefire, said the Persian Gulf Political Consultation would be “not a substitute for bilateral diplomacy but a forum where bilateral diplomacy is no longer the only safety net the region has.”

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed both addressed the council, in back-to-back statements, expressing support for the text and announcing that their governments would each contribute an additional $40 million to the UNOSOH mission’s operating budget. The Saudi minister also confirmed that Riyadh would send its deputy foreign minister to the Vienna consultation and that the kingdom’s Joint Coordination Mechanism with Iran on maritime affairs, opened May 8 in Riyadh, would “report findings to and receive guidance from” the new consultation.

Israel does not sit on the council and declined to issue a same-day statement, but a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government had not yet formally responded, said Jerusalem viewed the resolution “with cautious approval, weighed against the structural defects we identified in the framework itself.” The official said Israeli concerns centered on the absence of any explicit reference to Hezbollah’s status and on language characterizing the conflict as having begun on March 1 — a date that Israel disputes.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, addressing the council immediately after the vote, said he would name the Special Coordinator for Sanctions Sequencing “well within” the thirty-day window and that the secretariat for the Persian Gulf Political Consultation would begin recruitment this week. “The council has done its part,” Guterres said. “The work now passes to the region, to the parties, to those who must live with the framework. The United Nations will be present, useful and, where invited, indispensable.”

The next council session on the Middle East file is scheduled for June 9. Diplomats said the Special Coordinator would be expected to deliver an initial sequencing proposal in advance of that meeting.