E3 countries accuse Iran of failing to meet its 2015 nuclear pact commitments but say they are still open to diplomacy.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom have triggered a mechanism to reimpose sanctions on Iran after a series of meetings failed to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme.
The three European countries, known as the E3, have been warning Tehran for weeks that United Nations sanctions could be reimposed by October when a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers expires.
The decision on Thursday opens a 30-day window before the sanctions are reimposed. It comes after a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned this week that renewing the sanctions would have consequences.
The E3 has accused Tehran of violating provisions of the 2015 nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions on its economy.
A component of the nuclear deal, the “snapback” mechanism, allows sanctions to be reimposed quickly if Iran is found to be in violation of the accord.
“Since 2019 and as of today, Iran has increasingly and deliberately ceased performing its JCPoA commitments,” the French, German and British foreign ministers wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council on Thursday.
“This includes the accumulation of a high enriched uranium stockpile which lacks any credible civilian justification and is unprecedented for a state without a nuclear weapons programme,” they said, adding that they remain committed to reaching a diplomatic solution.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the E3’s decision as “unjustified, illegal and lacking any legal basis”.
Araghchi said Iran “will respond appropriately … to protect and secure its national rights and interests” but added that he hoped the European countries would “appropriately correct this wrong move in the coming days”.
If implemented, the move would mean a return to wide-ranging UN sanctions that were in place before the 2015 deal, including a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development and asset freezes.
Reporting from UN headquarters in New York, media’s Gabriel Elizondo stressed that the E3 announcement marks the beginning of a process.
“It does not mean the sanctions go into place immediately, and there is still room for negotiations over the coming weeks, … [so] that this could potentially be diplomatically resolved behind the scenes,” Elizondo said.
Nuclear talks
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran told Europeans during a meeting in Geneva that they do not have the right to trigger the mechanism. But Baghaei said both sides would continue nuclear talks.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, also said in a social media post after Tuesday’s talks that Tehran remained committed to diplomacy.
“High time for the E3 and [UN Security Council] to make the right choice, and give diplomacy time and space,” Gharibabadi wrote on X.
Iran had been steadily increasing its nuclear enrichment after United States President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018.
But the country, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, had been taking part in indirect talks with the US over its nuclear programme when Israel in June launched a bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear, military and civilian sites, killing hundreds of people.
The US also joined in Israel’s attacks, hitting nuclear targets in Iran and prompting the Iranian government to withdraw from all diplomatic efforts.
Talks began again in July between Iranian and European officials, but they have so far failed to reach a deal.
On Thursday, the E3 foreign ministers said in their letter to the UN Security Council that they had offered to extend sanctions relief if Iran agreed to specific steps.
But they said Tehran “has not returned to compliance with its obligations vis-a-vis the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor has it reengaged in negotiations with a view to reaching an acceptable diplomatic solution”.
media Diplomatic Editor James Bays noted that “Iran is the one who has been consistent throughout” the nuclear talks.
He explained that Tehran has said all along that it wants a peaceful nuclear programme, not nuclear weapons, while the US has been shifting its position.
“At one point, [the US] said, yes, you can have a peaceful nuclear programme, and then it said no, no nuclear whatsoever. And then, of course, diplomacy was still taking place … when Israel went and attacked Iran,” Bays said.
“It’s Iran that’s been consistent throughout everything, and it’s the US that really keeps changing its position and surprising people.”
‘Cycle of pressure, retaliation’
Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank, said the E3’s move on Thursday “looks less like a path to reviving cooperation than an escalation designed to squeeze Iran into short-term concessions”.
“Instead of restoring confidence, it risks locking both sides into a cycle of pressure and retaliation with no offramp,” Toossi wrote for the Responsible Statecraft magazine.
“Iran was just bombed while already at the negotiating table, and by some accounts a deal was nearly within reach. Trust is a two-way street, and the responsibility now falls on Europe to act as a credible interlocutor rather than an escalatory force in the triangle of tensions between the US, Israel, and Iran.”
Meanwhile, Foad Izadi, a professor at the University of Tehran, said people in Iran have expressed outrage at the E3’s plan to reimpose sanctions on the country, particularly as it comes just months after Israel’s attacks.
Izadi noted that some Iranian politicians also have been urging the government to withdraw from the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on nuclear weapons “because no matter what Iran does”, it faces international condemnation and penalties.
“Iran has tried agreements, Iran has tried diplomacy – nothing has worked. All Iran has seen are more sanctions, military attacks, sabotage, killings of Iranian scientists,” he told media, adding that many Iranians now believe the country should “follow an independent policy on its nuclear programme”.
