BERLIN, July 21 (Alliance News): Germany, France, and Britain — collectively known as the E3 — are preparing to resume negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme in the coming days, according to a German diplomatic source.
The move follows warnings from the European powers that UN sanctions on Iran may be reimposed if talks are not restarted or yield no progress.
The Iranian semi-official Tasnim news agency, as reported by Reuters, confirmed that the principle of new talks had been agreed upon. However, consultations are still underway regarding the time and venue, with the host country yet to be finalised.
This diplomatic initiative comes shortly after the E3 foreign ministers and the EU’s foreign policy chief held their first discussions with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi since Israel and the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities last month.
Germany, France, and the UK, along with China and Russia, remain parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the nuclear deal that lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities. The U.S. unilaterally exited the pact in 2018.
The E3 has warned that if the suspended Iran-U.S. nuclear talks, mediated by Oman before the Israel-Iran air war, do not resume or deliver tangible results, they will trigger the UN’s “snapback mechanism” to restore sanctions on Tehran by the end of August.
In response, Araqchi criticised the E3 for what he called “worn-out policies of threat and pressure,” asserting that the EU lacks both the moral and legal grounds to activate the snapback clause.
The snapback mechanism must be triggered before October 18, when the UN resolution that enshrined the JCPOA is set to expire.
Earlier rounds of talks between Tehran and Washington were stalled due to unresolved disputes, including the West’s demand to reduce Iran’s uranium enrichment activities to near-zero levels — a condition Tehran refuses, insisting its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.
