Paris, Berlin and London say they are ready to trigger the mechanism of reimposing sanctions against Iran if no negotiated solution is found on the Iranian nuclear program by the end of August, according to a letter addressed to the UN.
In this letter, revealed Wednesday by the Financial Times, the three foreign ministers stressed that it has “clearly indicated that if Iran does not wish to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not take the opportunity of an extension”, they are “ready to trigger the mechanism” allowing to restore all international sanctions against Iran.
The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Johann Wadephul, his French counterparts Jean-Noël Barrot and British David Lammy nevertheless say “fully committed to a diplomatic resolution of the crisis caused by the Iranian nuclear program and will continue their exchanges in order to achieve a negotiated solution”.
The letter addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and to the Security Council comes two months after Israeli and American strikes on nuclear sites in Iran, which put a stop to the negotiations started between Tehran and Washington on the one hand and to discussions with the three countries on the other. Following this 12 -day war, Iran had suspended its cooperation, already limited, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA).
In their letter, the ministers draw up the “non -exhaustive” list of nuclear commitments made within the framework of the agreement which had been signed in 2015 and that “Iran has not respected”, in particular the accumulation of a total stock of enriched uranium, “more than 40 times” greater than the limit set by the Treaty.
But the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, announced Sunday that an assistant director of the agency was expected on Monday in Tehran to discuss a new cooperation manager. Araghchi himself sent a letter to the UN last month in which he said that the countries had no legitimacy to reclude the sanctions mechanism. As a response, the German, British and French ministers write in their letter addressed Tuesday that these claims are “unfounded”.
The war waged by Israel in question
The three countries, as participants in the 2015 Treaty known as the JCPOA acronym, “would be clearly and unambiguously justified to use the relevant provisions of the United Nations Security Council (2015) to trigger the mechanism,” they argue. France, the United Kingdom and Germany are, with the United States, China and Russia, members of a nuclear agreement concluded with Iran in 2015 which provided significant restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program, in exchange for a gradual lifting of the UN sanctions.
The United States unilaterally withdrew from this text in 2018 and reposed its sanctions, but the three countries had assured their attachment to this agreement and claimed to want to continue trade with Iran. UN and European sanctions were therefore not restored.
