France, Germany, and UK Ready to Reimpose Sanctions on Iran

AUTHOR: M.J. GDNUS

France, Germany, and Britain have informed the United Nations that they are ready to reimpose sanctions on Iran if it does not return to negotiations with the international community over its nuclear program, Financial Times reports.
The foreign ministers of the so-called E3 group sent a letter to the UN on Tuesday to open the possibility of "snapback" sanctions, unless Iran takes steps, the report says, citing the letter seen by the newspaper.
“We have made it clear that, if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution by the end of August 2025 or does not seize the opportunity for an extension, the E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism,” the ministers stated in the letter, according to the report.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. The British, French, and German governments did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, remain signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – from which the United States withdrew in 2018 – which lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern country in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
The E3 warning comes after “serious, open, and detailed” talks with Iran in Istanbul last month, which marked the first in-person meeting since Israeli and U.S. strikes on the country’s nuclear sites in June.
Iranian lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2010, said the Iranian parliament “has its finger on the trigger to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)” if international sanctions are reimposed following any triggering of the snapback mechanism by the E3.
Mottaki told Iran’s semi-official Defa Press agency that parliament would adopt a law to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal within 24 hours if the E3 triggers the snapback mechanism.
During its 12-day war with Israel in June, Tehran announced that its lawmakers were preparing legislation that could bring it closer to exiting the agreement, which Iran ratified in 1970. The treaty guarantees states the right to develop civilian nuclear energy in exchange for renouncing nuclear weapons and cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.