Iran regime legitimacy contest

The European Union and the E3 (France, Germany, United Kingdom) describe their default posture across major confrontations in a framework of "diplomatic preservation" — diplomatic channels, multilateral frameworks, and negotiated agreements should be preserved even under pressure to abandon them. On Iran nuclear: the "snapback" mechanism, "Vienna talks", "JCPOA-plus" proposals, continuous engagement despite enrichment escalation. On Russia-Ukraine: "Normandy Format" and post-2022 negotiation contingencies. On Israel-Palestine: "two-state solution" orthodoxy and ICJ/ICC engagement. On China-Taiwan: "strategic ambiguity" combined with "dialogue" advocacy. The framing language is portable: "preserve diplomacy", "diplomatic off-ramp", "engage rather than isolate", "multilateral framework", "international law", "de-escalation", "return to negotiations". The narrative explicitly registers concern about adversary behaviour but rejects unilateral military escalation as response, preferring calibrated pressure within multilateral mechanisms. Prescription: sustained diplomatic effort, preservation of multilateral institutions, opposition to unilateral action that breaks established frameworks, and the EU as indispensable convening power.

China, Russia, Iran, the DPRK, and aligned Global South states describe US foreign policy through objection to American structural primacy. American security policy is termed "hegemony", "unilateralism", "imperialism", and "Cold War mentality". US sanctions are "collective punishment" affecting populations rather than governments. The alliance architecture (NATO, AUKUS, Quad, Indo-Pacific bilaterals) is "encirclement" and "containment" of rising powers. Military interventions abroad are "regime change"; forward deployments and bases on other states' soil are "foreign occupation". The narrative prescribes multipolarity (BRICS+ expansion, Russia-China-Iran-DPRK strategic alignment, dollar de-dependence, Global South solidarity) as the corrective. On Iran nuclear specifically: enrichment is a "sovereign right" of a state under hostile sanctions and Israeli threat; US-Israeli pressure is hegemonic interference and the actual escalator. (Iran-specific resistance vocabulary — Axis of Resistance, legitimate liberation — is captured in the separate `iran_axis_of_resistance` narrative not relevant to this FN.)