On Tuesday, Iranian officials met with representatives from the UK, France, and Germany in Geneva, as the European countries are threatening to re-impose so-called “snapback” sanctions on the Islamic Republic over the lack of diplomatic progress regarding Iran’s nuclear program in the wake of the 12-day US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
An unnamed diplomat told The Associated Press that the meeting ended without a “final outcome,” signaling that no progress was made. The UK, France, and Germany, known as the E3, have threatened to trigger the snapback sanctions if an agreement isn’t reached by the end of August.
The snapback sanctions are UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted when the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, was signed. Under the deal, signatories can re-impose the sanctions, but Tehran argues they don’t have the right to since the US was the party that violated the agreement and withdrew from it in 2018.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke by phone with his E3 counterparts and said any attempt to invoke snapback sanctions would be “legally baseless, morally unjustified, and carry serious consequences.”
Iranian officials have warned that if snapback sanctions are re-imposed, Tehran may 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 E3 countries want Iran to resume nuclear talks with the US, but Iranian officials are hesitant since the previous negotiations were used as a cover for Israel to launch the war against Iran, which began with Israeli airstrikes on June 13, two days before the US and Iran were scheduled to hold another meeting.
