The UK, France, and Germany have begun the process of reimposing UN Security Council sanctions on Iran under the “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, a step that makes another US-Israeli war on Iran more likely.
The European countries, known as the E3, sent a letter to the UN Security Council notifying it that they were triggering the sanctions, which will take effect in 30 days. Iran has said that the E3 countries don’t have the right to reimpose the sanctions since it was the US that withdrew from and violated the JCPOA in 2018.
The E3 said they were open to reaching a diplomatic deal with Iran that could halt the sanctions, but it’s unclear what sort of agreement could be reached. Their demands include that Iran resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but Tehran’s recent decision to allow IAEA inspectors to return to Iran didn’t stop the E3 from triggering the sanctions.
Iran expelled IAEA inspectors in the wake of the US-Israeli war in response to the watchdog’s role in providing a pretext for the initial Israeli attack and for its failure to condemn the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran also suspects that Israel may have gotten the names of Iranian scientists who were assassinated in the war from the IAEA.
The E3 also wants Iran to resume nuclear negotiations with the US. Iranian officials have been clear that they’re open to diplomacy with Washington but want assurances that they won’t be attacked again since the US and Israel used the previous negotiations as a cover to launch the war.
The US welcomed the E3’s step to trigger the sanctions. “The United States appreciates the leadership of our E3 allies in this effort. Over the coming weeks, we will work with them and other Members of the UN Security Council to successfully complete the snapback of international sanctions and restrictions on Iran,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi strongly condemned the E3’s move as “unjustified, illegal, and lacking any legal basis,” and warned that Tehran would take steps in response. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond appropriately to this unlawful and unwarranted measure by the three European countries to protect its national rights and interests,” he said.
Some Iranian officials have warned that if snapback sanctions are re-imposed, Tehran could withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a step that could be used by Israel and the US as a pretext to launch another war, even though Israel is not a signatory to the NPT. Unlike Iran, Israel actually has a secret nuclear weapons program and a stockpile of nuclear weapons that’s not officially acknowledged by the US and Israel.
The re-imposition of UN Security Council sanctions will further hurt Iran’s economy and could have an impact on its military relationship with Russia and China since the measures include an arms embargo. Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, said in a post on X that the E3 likely proceeded with triggering the snapback sanctions due to Iran’s relationship with Russia and to appease the Trump administration.
“Escalation with Iran through snapback now serves two EU objectives: punishing Tehran for supporting Russia in Ukraine, and aligning Europe with hawkish elements in the Trump administration—an alignment calculated to ease tensions in other areas of a transatlantic relationship under unprecedented duress,” Parsi wrote.
Parsi pointed to comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said as the 12-Day War was raging that Israel was “doing the dirty work for all of us.”
