France, the UK, and Germany have agreed to re-impose UN sanctions on Iran if there has been no progress on a nuclear deal by the end of August, as the three Western countries are putting pressure on Tehran following the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, signatories can re-impose so-called snapback sanctions that were lifted by the UN Security Council when the deal was signed. Iran argues that the signatories don’t have the right to re-impose the sanctions since the US was the party that violated the agreement and withdrew from it in 2018.
It’s unclear what sort of progress the UK, France, and Germany would require to stave off the sanctions. So far, there’s been no sign that negotiations between the US and Iran will resume since Tehran wants assurances that the US or Israel won’t attack during the next round of talks.
Iran’s parliament on Wednesday reaffirmed Tehran’s position on the future talks with the US. “When the US uses negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime, talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set, and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met,” the parliament said in a statement.
Iranian officials have also said they cannot resume negotiations with the US as long as the US continues to demand Tehran abandon its nuclear enrichment program, which Iran says it has a right to as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that has vowed not to develop nuclear weapons.
For his part, President Trump has said he would bomb Iran again if it restarted its enrichment program. At this point, it’s unclear how long it would take for Iran to restart the program following the US and Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites. Before the 12-Day War, there was no evidence that Tehran was seeking a nuclear weapon, and it was willing to reduce uranium enrichment levels as part of a deal with the US.
