European and Iranian diplomats fail to agree on how to avoid reviving UN sanctions

Representatives of three European countries threatening to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme failed to agree with their Iranian counterpart on Tuesday on how to avoid the measures days ahead of a deadline, a diplomat said.

The discussions in Geneva among representatives of France, Germany and the United Kingdom "ended without a final outcome," said the diplomat with knowledge of the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the talks.

The diplomat said efforts would continue to find a solution ahead of a deadline at the end of this month to invoke the so-called snapback mechanism of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal over what the countries have deemed Iran's lack of compliance.

The snapback would mean a return to wide-ranging UN sanctions in place before the deal, including a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on ballistic missile development, asset freezes, travel bans and a ban on producing nuclear-related technology.

The meeting among the E3 countries and Iran 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 25 July.

The Europeans' concern over the Iranian nuclear programme, which had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels before the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in June saw its atomic sites bombed, has only grown since Tehran cut off all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

That has left the international community further in the dark about the status of Iran’s nuclear activities, as well as 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 US, the IAEA and others say Iran had a nuclear weapons program up until 2003.

The Europeans agreed with the US 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 US over its nuclear programme, allowing UN nuclear inspectors access to its nuclear sites and accounting for the over 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

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 UN Security Council members, including permanent members and allies of Iran, Russia and China.

Iran contends there is no legal basis for the Europeans to reimpose UN sanctions via snapback, claiming the countries failed to uphold the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after the US 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.

UN inspectors were tasked with monitoring the programme.

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.