France, Germany and the United Kingdom began the process to reimpts UN sanctions to Iran for its nuclear program.
The triggering of so-called “snapback” sanctions, a measure that the United States received with satisfaction on Thursday (28), occurs at a time when diplomatic efforts to contain the growth of the Iranian nuclear program have failed. Tehran condemned the measure and warned that there may be consequences for the repayment of sanctions.
The “E3” countries notified the UN Security Council on Thursday that they were activating the Snapback mechanism, which would reform all the UN sanctions previously suspended in the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. The mechanism was included as part of this agreement, formally known by the acronym JCPOA (joint and comprehensive action plan).
Since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the agreement in 2018.
Today, Iran’s non-compliance with JCPOA is clear and deliberate, and places of great concern about proliferation in Iran are out of monitoring, ”said French Foreign Ministers, Germany and the United Kingdom in a joint statement on Thursday.” Iran has no civil justification for its highly enriched uranium inventory. “
“Therefore, its nuclear program remains a clear threat to international peace and security,” the statement added.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the measure on Thursday, calling it “provocative and unnecessary escalation” that will be answered with “appropriate answers.” The ministry stated in a statement that the E3 decision will “severely harm the process in progress of Iran’s interactions and cooperation” with the AIEA.
Iran has passed decades developing its nuclear program, which claims to be exclusively for peaceful energy purposes. The country said it plans to build more nuclear plants to meet internal energy needs and release more export oil.
Nuclear plants require uranium – and, according to the UN nuclear agency, no other country has the type of uranium that Iran currently has without maintaining a nuclear weapons program.
By the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed with restrictions on the use of centrifuges, dramatically reduced its uranium stock and limited uranium enrichment levels to a maximum of 3.67%, below the almost 20% it had been reaching. It also agreed to allow more international inspections on its nuclear facilities. In return, Tehran received a relief from sanctions in the amount of billions of dollars.
However, since the Trump administration withdrew the United States from nuclear agreement in 2018, Iran significantly increased its uranium enrichment program. Tehran started with about 150 kg of uranium enriched to 3.6% – enough level for nuclear reactors and a peaceful nuclear program – and today has a 50 -fold stock than 2018.
30 -day process
The snapback process takes 30 days, giving Tehran a time window to act and try to prevent the reposition of sanctions. The possibility of triggering snapback sanctions expires in October 2025, which motivated the E3 group to take this measure now.
“It was not a light decision,” said a British employee on Thursday. According to the employee, Group E3 made the decision due to Iran’s “serious non -compliance” with the 2015 agreement, their highly enriched uranium stocks, and what they described as a lack of “sufficient response from Iran” to reach a diplomatic agreement.
“We do not believe it is the end of diplomacy, and we are still committed to a negotiated solution,” said the official.
In a letter sent to the president of Thursday, the foreign ministers of E3 countries wrote that “they will continue to strive to resolve the issue of Iran’s serious non-compliance and say that if this issue is resolved before the end of the 30-day period … E3 will inform the Security Council in accordance.”
“So we set up Iran to engage in constructive diplomacy to resolve concerns related to their nuclear program,” the ministers wrote in the letter, whose copy was obtained by CNN.
In the joint statement of European countries, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the measures of sanctions and other restrictions “are not new.” According to the text, these measures had already been previously agreed by the UN Security Council and “were suspended in light of the commitments made by Iran under JCPOA.”
“However, Iran chose not to comply with these commitments,” added the joint statement.
The AIEA Director-General said on Thursday he was optimistic about the resumption of inspections, saying, “I believe there will be positive elements about the table that may help to avoid the possibility of these broad sanctions.”
“Now there is a period of a month that I believe, we should take advantage … AIA can establish a good mechanism to return to the places and especially to check what happened with the material, with highly enriched 60%uranium,” Rafael Grossi told journalist Becky Anderson of CNN.
Nuclear inspectors returned to Iran this week for the first time since the conflict between Israel and Iran in June, which resulted in Israeli and Americans bombings to Iranian nuclear facilities. However, Grossi has confirmed that there is not yet a formal agreement that allows inspectors to do their work with broad access.
“I urge Iranian leaders to immediately take the necessary measures to ensure that their country never gets a nuclear weapon; to follow the path of peace; and consequently promote prosperity to the Iranian people,” said.
UN Ambassador Danny Danon also celebrated Snapback’s activation, calling him an important step to stop Iran’s nuclear program and increase pressure on the Iranian regime.
The statement occurs after Israel launched intense air attacks against at least one of Iran’s enrichment sites in June, as well as further targeted attacks in Tehran to eliminate military leadership from the regime.
