Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his European counterparts Friday they have no grounds for reactivating UN sanctions after they threatened to do so in the coming months unless there is progress in nuclear talks.
“If EU/E3 (Germany, France and the UK) want to have a role, they should act responsibly and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the 'snapback' for which they [have] absolutely no moral [or] legal grounds,” Araghchi said on X.
On Friday, the Iranian FM had a joint teleconference with E3 foreign ministers and EU representatives for political affairs.
Araghchi said he told the EU and E3 officials that it was the US that withdrew from the two-year negotiated deal - coordinated by EU in 2015- not Iran.
“And it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran,” he wrote on X.
“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal,” the FM added.
In Tehran, calls have been growing to deter any move by the E3 aimed at activating the “snapback” mechanism that reimposes UN sanctions on Tehran under the nuclear deal.
France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Thursday that they would restore UN sanctions unless it reopened talks on its nuclear program immediately and produced concrete results by the end of August.
A French diplomatic source told Reuters that the ministers had urged Iran to resume diplomacy immediately to reach a “verifiable and lasting” deal, threatening to use the so-called 'snapback' mechanism if it failed to do so.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 deal - from which the US withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
If Iran is found to be in violation of the terms, the “snapback” can be used to restore UN sanctions before the UN Security Council resolution enshrining the deal expires on October 18. The process would take about 30 days.
“The ministers also reiterated their determination to use the so-called 'snapback' mechanism in the absence of concrete progress toward such an agreement by the end of the summer,” the French diplomatic source said, without specifying what this would entail.
Since the airstrikes, inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, have left Iran. While Tehran has suggested it is open to diplomacy, there are no indications a sixth round of talks with Washington will resume soon.
Even if they do, diplomats say reaching a comprehensive accord before the end of August - the deadline the Europeans have given - seems unrealistic, especially without inspectors on the ground.
Two European diplomats said they hoped to coordinate strategy with Washington in the coming days with a view to restarting talks with Iran.
