EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Friday the coming weeks offered an "opportunity" to hammer out a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program, after European powers triggered a 30-day deadline for sanctions to come back into force.
"We are entering a new phase with this 30 days that is now giving us also the opportunity to really find diplomatic ways to find a solution," Kallas told journalists.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom moved Thursday to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
The process, termed a “snapback” by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof at the UN and could take effect in a month.
It would again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran's ballistic missile program, among other measures, further squeezing the country’s reeling economy.
The move starts a 30-day clock for sanctions to return, a period that likely will see intensified diplomacy from Iran, whose refusal to cooperate with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, started the crisis.
