Iran said Thursday it was working with China and Russia to prevent the snapback of European sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme after Britain, France and Germany threatened to reimpose them.
“We will try to prevent it,” Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in an interview with state TV.
“We are working with China and Russia to stop it. If this does not work and they apply it, we have tools to respond. We will discuss them in due course.”
The trio of European powers, known as the E3, told the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday that they were ready to reimpose sanctions on Tehran if no diplomatic solution was found by the end of August.
All three were signatories to a 2015 deal that lifted sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The agreement, which terminates in October, includes a “snapback mechanism” allowing sanctions to be restored.
“We have made 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,” the group’s foreign ministers said in the letter.
“If Iran continues to violate its international obligations, France and its German and British partners will reimpose the global embargoes on arms, nuclear equipment and banking restrictions that were lifted 10 years ago at the end of August,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted on X on Wednesday.
Araghchi said the return of sanctions would be “negative” but that the predicted economic effects “have been exaggerated”.
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