European leaders, Iran set for nuclear negotiations in Geneva

Iran – European – US – (Special Correspondent / Web Desk) – Iran and the European nations Britain, France, and Germany will meet for new nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported.

Officials said the three European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal, along with the European Union, will join Iran for discussions at the deputy foreign minister level.

This will be the second round of talks since the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in June, when the United States also hit Iran’s nuclear facilities. Their last meeting took place in Istanbul on July 25.

The talks come after Iran stopped cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). They said the UN watchdog failed to condemn strikes by Israel and the US against Iranian nuclear sites.

The conflict and airstrikes pushed Iran’s wider talks with the US even further off track. At the same time, Britain, France, and Germany have warned they may trigger the “snapback mechanism” under the 2015 deal. This would bring back UN sanctions unless Iran limits its uranium enrichment and lets IAEA inspectors back in.

Iran strongly disputes this, saying the Europeans have not kept their own promises under the deal.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by Iran, the UK, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the US. It gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme, making sure it could not build nuclear weapons—something Iran says it never wanted to do.

The deal began to unravel in 2018 when then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from it and reimposed tough sanctions. In return, Iran slowly scaled back its commitments, especially on uranium enrichment.

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Britain, France, and Germany still backed the deal at the time and promised to keep trade with Iran alive. But their plan to bypass US sanctions mostly failed, and many Western companies pulled out. Iran has since faced soaring inflation and a deep economic crisis.

Now, the October deadline for the snapback mechanism is fast approaching. According to the Financial Times, the Europeans may extend this deadline if Iran agrees to resume talks with Washington and restart full cooperation with the IAEA.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insists the Europeans have “no legal right” to use the mechanism.