European officials have warned Iran that time is running out for Tehran to halt the reimposition of United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme.
“The window for finding a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear issue is closing really fast,” the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, warned in a statement. “Iran must show credible steps towards addressing the demands of France, the U.K. and Germany, and this means demonstrating full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and allowing inspections of all nuclear sites without delay.”
In a separate posting on X, Germany’s Foreign Ministry noted that Tehran had yet “to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to” stop the reimposition of UN sanctions.
Hours later, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that the reimposition of UN sanctions lacked “any legal or logical justification.” He also cited the prior Egyptian-mediated deal between Iran and the IAEA that granted the UN watchdog agency access to all Iranian nuclear sites and that obliged Tehran to report on the locations of all its nuclear material.
“It is now up to the other parties to seize this opportunity to keep the diplomatic path open and avert an avoidable crisis, showing seriousness and belief in diplomacy,” the Araghchi statement said.
What remains unclear is when Iran will make that report since the statement did not elaborate.
The so-called “snapback” process to reimplement sanctions on Iran is part of the 2015 nuclear deal Iran agreed to, which (if breached) was intentionally designed to be veto-proof at the UN. That will happen at the end of September unless the UN Security Council agrees to stop it.
If so, once again, Iranian assets abroad will be frozen, arms deals with Tehran halted, and any development of Iran’s ballistic missile programme will be penalised.
