France, Germany and the UK on Thursday moved to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, further isolating Tehran after its atomic sites were repeatedly bombed during a 12-day war with Israel.
The process, termed a “snapback” by the diplomats who negotiated it into Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, was designed to be veto-proof at the UN and could take effect in a month.
It would again freeze Iranian assets abroad, halt arms deals with Tehran and penalize any development of Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures, further squeezing the country’s reeling economy.
Photo: Reuters
The move starts a 30-day clock for sanctions to return, a period that likely would see intensified diplomacy from Iran.
The three European nations on Aug. 8 said that Iran could trigger the snapback when it halted inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency after Israeli strikes at the start of the two countries’ 12-day war in June.
The European nations triggered the sanctions process through a letter to the UN Security Council, and suggested they viewed it as a way to spur negotiations with Tehran.
“This measure does not signal the end of diplomacy: we are determined to make the most of the 30-day period that is now opening to engage in dialogue with Iran,” French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X.
“Iranian leaders perceive a sanctions ‘snapback’ as a Western effort to weaken Iran’s economy indefinitely and perhaps stimulate sufficient popular unrest to unseat Iran’s regime,” the New York-based Soufan Center said on Thursday.
After Europe’s warning, Iran initially downplayed the threat of renewed sanctions and engaged in little visible diplomacy for weeks, but it did take part in a brief diplomatic push in recent days, highlighting the chaos gripping its theocracy.
In Tehran on Thursday, the rial traded at more than 1 million to US$1. At the time of the 2015 accord, it traded at 32,000 rial to US$1, showing the currency’s precipitous collapse over the past decade.
The snapback mechanism would expire on Oct. 18. After that, any sanctions effort would face a veto from UN Security Council members China and Russia — nations that have provided some support to Iran in the past. China has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, something that could be affected if the snapback happens.
Russia on Thursday announced that Moscow and Beijing introduced a draft resolution to the Security Council, offering a six-month extension of the sanctions relief.
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