Britain, France and Germany on Thursday (August 28) launched a 30-day process to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, Reuters reports.
A senior Iranian official quickly accused the three European powers of harming diplomacy and vowed that Tehran would not bow to pressure over the move by the E3 to launch the so-called "snapback mechanism."
The three powers feared they would otherwise lose the prerogative in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.
Iran and the E3 have held several rounds of talks since Israel and the U.S. bombed its nuclear installations in mid-June, aiming to agree to defer the snapback mechanism. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva on Tuesday did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.
The E3 acted on Thursday over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal that aimed to prevent it developing a nuclear weapons capability in return for a lifting of international sanctions. The E3, along with Russia, China and the United States, were party to that accord.
Iran's national television station IRIB said Tehran was angered by Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, on Thursday (August 28) for launching a 30-day process to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.
"The Europeans' use of the snapback mechanism is illegal," the presenter read out saying Iran's Foreign Minister Araqchi had been on the phone with the E3 and the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calling on them to reverse the process.
A senior Iranian official earlier accused the three of harming diplomacy and vowed that Tehran would not bow to pressure over the move by the E3 to launch the so-called "snapback mechanism".
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the decision did not signal the end of diplomacy. His German counterpart Johann Wadephul urged Iran to now fully cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and commit to direct talks with the United States over the next month.
The U.N. Security Council is due to meet behind closed doors on Friday at the request of the E3 to discuss the snapback move against the Islamic Republic, diplomats said.
