European and Iranian diplomats hold last-minute nuclear talks ahead of
sanctions deadline
[August 26, 2025]
VIENNA (AP) — Representatives from Britain, France and Germany, known as
the E3 nations, are set to hold last-minute talks with their Iranian
counterparts in Geneva on Tuesday amid a fast-approaching deadline for
the Europeans to reimpose sanctions on Iran by triggering the so-called
snapback mechanism.
The meeting was announced by the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign
Ministry on Monday.
The talks follow a previous meeting between the Europeans and Iran in
Istanbul on July 25.
The Europeans’ concern over the Iranian nuclear program, which had been
enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day
Iran-Israel war in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown
since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic
Energy Agency in the conflict’s wake.
That has left the international community further blinded to Iran’s
program — as well as the status of its stockpile of uranium enriched to
60% purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, though it is the only
non-nuclear-armed nation enriching uranium at that level. The U.S., the
IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.
The Europeans agreed with the U.S. earlier this year to set an
end-of-August deadline for invoking the mechanism if Iran fails to meet
several conditions, including resuming negotiations with the U.S. over
its nuclear program, allowing U.N. nuclear inspectors access to its
nuclear sites and accounting for the over 400 kilograms of highly
enriched uranium.
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The “snapback” provision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal can be invoked by
any party if they find Iran out of compliance with requirements. Its
purpose is to swiftly reimpose all pre-deal sanctions without being
vetoed by U.N. Security Council members, including permanent members
Russia and China.
Iran contends there is no legal basis for the Europeans to reimpose U.N.
sanctions via snapback, claiming the countries failed to uphold the 2015
Iran nuclear deal after the U.S. exit in 2018, especially ensuring the
anticipated economic benefits for Iran.
In an effort to ensure Iran could not develop atomic weapons, world
powers struck a deal with Tehran in 2015 under which it agreed to limit
enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange
for the lifting of economic sanctions. U.N. inspectors were tasked with
monitoring the program.
Under the original nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only
up to 3.67% purity, can maintain a stockpile of uranium of 300 kilograms
and is permitted to use only very basic IR-1 centrifuges — machines that
spin uranium gas at high speed for enrichment purposes.
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