Europe gives Iran deadline to contain nuclear program
UNITED NATIONS
Traffic flows past a huge billboard bearing a painting of a missile falling on Israel with the slogan in Farsi: "The missile has fallen amidst the demons", on a main road in central Tehran on July 16, 2025.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough U.N. sanctions on Iran by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats said on July 15.
The three countries' ambassadors to the United Nations met on July 15 at Germany’s U.N. Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and reimposing the sanctions. The matter reportedly came up in a phone call on July 14 between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries.
The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about “ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon.”
The U.K., France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. during his first term, insisting it wasn’t tough enough.
Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program, a so-called “snapback” provision allows one of the Western parties to reimpose U.N. sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements.
‘’Without a verifiable commitment from Iran by the end of August at the latest, France, Germany and the U.K. will be justified in reapplying the U.N. sanctions [snapbacks] that were lifted 10 years ago," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
