Brussels – The historic Iranian nuclear program deal seems to have reached the end of the line. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have decided to restore sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which had been suspended as a result of the JCPOA, which is about to expire. The European nations hope to put pressure on Tehran to seriously engage at the negotiating table, while the ayatollahs threaten “serious repercussions.”
This morning (28 August), representatives of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—the group known as the E3—delivered a letter to the members of the United Nations Security Council notifying them of the activation of the so-called snapback mechanism to reinstate international sanctions against Iran, suspended for a decade as provided for in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tehran’s 2015 nuclear program deal.
“Based on concrete evidence, the E3 considers that Iran is in a position of severe non-compliance with its commitments” under the JCPOA, the missive reads. The transalpine foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, reiterated that “Iran’s nuclear escalation must not go any further.” The main fear of Western chancelleries (which, however, has never been supported by tangible evidence) is that the Islamic Republic has breached its obligation to limit its nuclear programme exclusively to civil purposes by enriching uranium to produce atomic weapons.
With my colleagues @AussenMinDE and @DavidLammy, we have officially notified the United Nations Security Council of Iran’s significant failure to comply with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and have triggered the so-called “snapback” procedure ….
– Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) August 28, 2025
Tehran’s response was not long in coming. Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi denounced it as “an unwarranted, illegal, and lacking any legal basis,” claiming that “Iran has always acted in a responsible manner and in good faith” and warning that the Islamic Republic will react “in an appropriate manner.” The ayatollahs, who have previously threatened to withdraw the country from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if international sanctions were reimposed, warned of unspecified “serious repercussions.”
The leaders of the E3 nations have described the decision to activate the snapback as inevitable following the substantial bust of the last round of negotiations in Geneva on August 26. At least in words, the Europeans leave the door open for dialogue: the diplomatic efforts of the E3 countries indicate that they are willing to negotiate a new agreement with their Iranian counterparts before the restrictive measures come back into force. “This measure does not mark the end of diplomacy,” Barrot noted, reiterating that Paris, Berlin, and London remain “determined to exploit the 30-day period that opens up to dialogue with Iran.”
According to the European negotiators, the Islamic Republic failed to comply with the main requests made by the West last month, when they gave Tehran until the end of August to resume direct talks with the United States, welcome back the UN inspectors to its nuclear facilities, and deliver the fissile material the ayatollahs are allegedly still in possession of.
Technicians from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had been ousted from Iran following the Israeli aggression in June and the subsequent US bombing of the nuclear plants in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. This week, IAEA inspectors were allowed to return to Iranian soil, albeit with severe restrictions. According to Western intelligence, the country has around 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium—at a level sufficient to make an atomic weapon (the threshold is 90 per cent)—that never surfaced after the star-studded B-2 Spirit attack.
Therefore, not having found sufficient goodwill on the part of Tehran, Paris, Berlin, and London decided to activate the reset mechanism in a hurry. On 18 October, Resolution 2231, which governs the JCPOA, will expire. It stipulates that no pre-2015 sanctions (imposed by the UN, US, and EU) can be reinstated before 30 days after the end of the treaty.
Now, on paper, the Security Council has one month to keep the suspension of sanctions in force. However, to do so requires at least nine votes in favour out of the total 15, and, above all, no vetoes from the permanent members (China, France, the UK, Russia, and the US). All five permanent members, plus the EU, were also part of the JCPOA until Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018.
Unless the UN executive body takes further action, the pre-JCPoA sanctions will be reintroduced at the end of September, an automatic process that cannot be blocked, even by votes against from Beijing and Moscow. The UN’s restrictive measures, suspended by the 2015 treaty, had been imposed through six resolutions between 2006 and 2010 and include an embargo on arms sales, a ban on enriching uranium beyond civilian research thresholds, a ban on the development and transfer of ballistic missile technology (including launches), and a freeze on a number of Iranian assets globally.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
