France, the U.K. and Germany have told the United Nations they support reinstating snapback sanctions on Iran, if it doesn’t re-enter dialogue with the West over its nuclear program, according to reporting.
“We have made it clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism,” ministers of the three countries — using an acronym that describes the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal — said in a letter obtained by the FT.
The reported letter was delivered to the U.N. Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres two months after Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities over the course of a 12-day conflict that set regional tensions and energy prices soaring.
‘Snapback’ sanctions are part of a mechanism that was built into the original 2015 Iranian nuclear deal — formally titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the JCPOA. The deal removed a number of sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.
They were designed to act as a guardrail: if Iran commits a “significant non-performance” of the deal, any of the JCPOA signatory countries can trigger the automatic reimposition of U.N. sanctions lifted under the agreement, and no other permanent member can veto it.
The EU said in mid-July that it would start the process of reinstating UN sanctions on Tehran from Aug. 29 if it does not make sufficient progress on limiting its nuclear program. Those sanctions are set to expire on October 18 unless one of the remaining parties of the deal — Russia, China, or a member of the E3 — triggers the snapback option.
″‘Snapback’ looks set to be the word of the summer in European negotiations with Iran,” Ellie Geranmayeh, Deputy Director, Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a July report.