Europe threatens Iran with renewed sanctions in nuclear dispute

Paris, Berlin, and London have threatened Iran with the reimposition of strict sanctions if there is no concrete progress toward a new nuclear agreement by the end of the summer. The foreign ministers of the E3 countries (Germany, France, and Great Britain) and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi in a telephone call to resume talks to reach a robust, verifiable, and sustainable agreement on Iran's nuclear program, according to the Foreign Ministry in Paris.

Without progress, the Europeans are determined to impose sanctions against Tehran using the so-called snapback mechanism. The 2015 Vienna agreement on Iran's nuclear program formally expires this October. As co-signatories, the Europeans have the option of reinstating previous, strict UN sanctions against Iran without much resistance until then.

The discussion about the nuclear program with the Iranian foreign minister followed a meeting between the three European ministers and their American counterpart, Marco Rubio, earlier this week, according to a report in Paris. According to a report by the US news site Axios, Rubio and the Europeans agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran. In Paris, the only word was "the end of summer."

Israel launched a war against Iran on June 13, attacking targets across the country, including nuclear facilities. The United States intervened shortly thereafter, bombing three of the most important nuclear sites. Prior to this, Tehran and Washington had been negotiating for a good two months about Iran's nuclear program. The goal was to limit the program and prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.