The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough UN sanctions on Iran by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats said.
The three countries’ ambassadors to the United Nations met on Tuesday at Germany’s UN Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and re-imposing the sanctions.
The matter also came up in a phone call on Monday between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries, according to two US officials.
The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about “ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon”.
The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The UK, France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear programme, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the US during his first term, insisting it was not tough enough.
Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear programme, a so-called “snapback” provision allows one of the Western parties to re-impose UN sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that the three European countries would be justified in re-applying sanctions.
“With regard to Iran, the minister reiterated the priority of resuming negotiations to establish a long-term framework for Iran’s nuclear programme,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“Without a verifiable commitment from Iran by the end of August at the latest, France, Germany and the UK will be justified in re-applying the UN sanctions (snapbacks) that were lifted 10 years ago.”
The diplomats did not provide details of the deal being sought. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in recent days that Tehran would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the US if there were assurances of no more attacks, following Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.
He said there should be “a firm guarantee” that such actions will not be repeated, stressing that “the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution”.
The United States and Iran held several rounds of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear programme before the Israeli strikes began in June.
Mr Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week that talks would happen soon, but nothing has yet been scheduled.
Mr Araghchi, whose country insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, said that “the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut”.
Iran’s UN Mission had no comment on Tuesday on the threat of renewed sanctions if there is no deal.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that the US airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction.
Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA.
