Nuclear Energy

Iran also expresses commitment to diplomacy as landmark 10-year nuclear deal with Western powers officially ends.

Iran has said it is no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy”.

From now on, “all of the provisions [of the 2015 deal], including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated,” Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday, the day of the pact’s expiration.

“Iran firmly expresses its commitment to diplomacy,” it added.

The deal’s “termination day” was set for exactly 10 years after the adoption of resolution 2231, enshrined by the United Nations Security Council.

Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement between Iran and China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States saw the lifting of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme.

But Washington unilaterally left the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office and reinstated sanctions. Tehran then began stepping up its nuclear programme.

Talks to revive the agreement have failed so far, and in August, the UK, Germany and France triggered the so-called “snapback” process, leading to the re-imposition of the UN sanctions.

“Termination day is relatively meaningless due to snapback,” Arms Control Association expert Kelsey Davenport told the AFP news agency.

Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, told AFP that while the nuclear deal had been “lifeless” for years, the snapback had “officially buried” the agreement, with “its sorry fate continuing to cast a shadow over the future”.

Western powers and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.

Neither US intelligence nor the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said they found any evidence this year that Iran was pursuing atomic weapons.

Nuclear talks between Iran and world powers are currently deadlocked.

“Iran remains sceptical of the utility of engaging with the US given its history with President Trump, while Washington still seeks a maximalist deal,” Vaez told AFP.

On Monday, Trump said he wanted a peace deal with Iran, but stressed the ball was in Tehran’s court.

Tehran has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy with the US, provided Washington offers guarantees against military action during any potential talks.

The US joined Israel in striking Iran during a 12-day war in June, which hit nuclear sites, but also killed more than 1,000 Iranians, including hundreds of civilians, and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Angered that the IAEA did not condemn the attacks and accusing the agency of “double standards”, President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a law in early July suspending all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog and prompting inspectors to leave the country.

For its part, the IAEA has described its inability to verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile since the start of the war “a matter of serious concern”.

The three European powers last week announced they will seek to restart talks to find a “comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement”.

Iranian top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said during an interview last week that Tehran does “not see any reason to negotiate” with the Europeans, given they triggered the snapback mechanism.

Joint statement comes more than a month after the E3 countries triggered a mechanism reinstating UN sanctions against Iran.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany have said they wish to restart stalled nuclear talks with Iran and the United States, more than a month after the three European countries triggered a mechanism reinstating the United Nations sanctions on Iran for the first time in a decade.

The E3 countries’ joint statement on Friday came nearly two weeks after UN sanctions were reimposed on Iran, under a “snapback” process that the three nations had initiated on August 28 and that became effective one month later.

In response, Iran recalled its envoys to the three European countries for consultations.

Iran has said that, following those revived sanctions, it would not immediately resume nuclear talks.

The sanctions set up a global ban on cooperation with Iran on nuclear, military, banking and shipping industries.

The sanctions are aimed at imposing new economic pain to pressure Iran, but it remains to be seen if all countries will enforce them. On September 27, the day before the sanctions came into effect, Iran’s national currency, the rial, fell to new all-time lows.

In their joint statement, the UK, France and Germany said: “We are determined to reinitiate negotiations with Iran and the United States towards a comprehensive, durable and verifiable agreement that ensures Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.”

A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Monday that “we have no plans for negotiations at this stage”.

He added that Iran was examining the “consequences and implications” of the restart of sanctions.

“Of course, diplomacy – in the sense of maintaining contacts and consultations – will continue,” Baghaei said. “Whenever we feel that diplomacy can be effective, we will certainly make decisions based on the country’s interests and priorities.”

Nuclear fears

Western countries, spearheaded by the US and joined by Israel, accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons – a charge Tehran has long denied.

During a 12-day June conflict, the US bombed nuclear sites in Iran, joining an Israeli air campaign that targeted Iran’s top generals and nuclear scientists, as well as civilians in residential areas. Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles and drones against Israel and sites linked to the US. According to Amnesty International, Israeli attacks on Iran killed at least 1,100 people.

The E3 said in Friday’s statement that “it was right that the snapback mechanism had been triggered”.

“Iran’s nuclear programme poses a serious threat to global peace and security,” the bloc of nations added.

In 2015, the US, along with the E3, Russia and China, concluded an agreement with Iran providing for the regulation of Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

US President Donald Trump decided during his first term in 2018 to withdraw the US from the deal and to reinstate US sanctions.

In retaliation, Iran pulled back from some of its commitments, particularly on uranium enrichment.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is the only country without a nuclear weapons programme to enrich uranium to 60 percent. That is close to the threshold of 90 percent required for a bomb, and well above the far lower level needed for civilian nuclear use.

Kyiv, Ukraine – On October 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukrainian attacks had destroyed a high-voltage transmission line between the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine and Kyiv-controlled areas.

Days earlier, Ukraine’s leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russian shelling had cut the plant off from the electricity network.

The mammoth, six-reactor plant – Europe’s largest and known in Ukraine as the ZAES – sits less than 10km (6.2 miles) south of the front line. It has been shut since 2022, generating none of the electricity that once provided up to a fifth of Ukraine’s needs.

But dozens of Moscow-deployed engineers have frantically tried to restart it – so far unsuccessfully. Ukraine has long feared that Russia is trying to connect the power grid and quench a thirst for energy in Crimea and other occupied areas.

Putin purported that the alleged Ukrainian strikes caused a blackout at the plant and that it had to be fuelled by diesel generators.

The latest blackout at the plant is the longest wartime outage of power.

“On the [Ukrainian] side, people should understand that if they play so dangerously, they have an operating nuclear power station on their side,” Putin told a forum in St Petersburg.

‘The radioactivity is so powerful’

In fact, apart from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Ukraine has three operating power stations – as well as the shutdown Chornobyl facility, the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

“And what prevents us from mirroring [Ukraine’s alleged actions] in response? Let them think about it,” Putin said.

His threat had apparently already been fulfilled a day earlier. Ukraine accused Russia of shelling that damaged the power supply to the colossal protective “sarcophagus” over the Chornobyl station’s Reactor Four that exploded in 1986.

Both the Chornobyl station and the plant in Zaporizhzhia need electricity for their safety systems and, most importantly, for the uninterrupted circulation of water that cools nuclear fuel.

The fuel, thousands of uranium rods that keep emitting heat, are too radioactive to be taken anywhere else.

In Chornobyl, the fuel is spent and submerged in cooling ponds or “dry-stored” in ventilated, secured facilities.

But at the Zaporizhzhia site, the rods are still inside the reactors – and are newer, hotter, and made in the United States.

Before the war, Ukraine began a switch from the hexagonal, bee-cell-like rods made by Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear monopoly, to the square rods made by Westinghouse, an energy giant based in Pittsburgh in the US.

The US-made rods will take years to cool down enough to be removed without the risk of contamination, according to a former Zaporizhzhia plant engineer who fled to Kyiv.

“The radioactivity is so powerful that one can’t get the fuel out, [or] transport or handle in other ways until it burns out. It will take years,” the engineer told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity because of security concerns for relatives in Enerhodar.

Ukrainian forces ‘prevent’ Russia’s alleged plans

A greater challenge at the plant is a severe lack of reactor-cooling water. The Zaporizhzhia station stood less than 15km (9 miles) upstream from the mammoth, Soviet-designed Novo-Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River.

The dam created a reservoir with up to 18 cubic kilometres (4.76 trillion gallons) of water that freely flowed to the power station. In June 2023, the dam was destroyed by powerful blasts – Ukraine and Russian traded blame – and the water level dropped dramatically.

The deep cooling ponds around the plant that never froze, even in the harshest winters, had been filled to the brim, but the water keeps evaporating. There is enough to cool the shutdown reactors – but not nearly enough if the station is restarted and the uranium rods turn the water into steam to power the turbines.

“It’s absolutely impossible to switch on even one bloc,” the engineer said. “Of course, the Russians keep digging and supply some water, but it’s not enough at all.”

The biggest problem is Russia’s failure to hook the plant to the energy grid of occupied regions as Ukrainian forces pin-pointedly destroy the transmission lines Russia is building – along with fuel depots and thermal power stations, he said.

“The Russians are restoring them any way they can, but Ukrainian forces very much prevent the restoration,” the engineer quipped.

Bellona, a Norway-based nuclear monitor, said on October 2 that a “greater danger lies in Moscow’s potential use of the crisis to justify reconnecting the plant to its own grid – portraying itself as the saviour preventing a nuclear disaster”.

Should Moscow do that, the step would only “worsen [the] strategic situation, give Moscow additional leverage, and bring a potential restart closer – a move that, amid ongoing fighting, would itself sharply increase the risk of a nuclear accident,” it said.

Analysts pointed to a deal proposed by US President Donald Trump in March to transfer the plant to US management as a possible solution.

Ukrainian strikes “will go on until Russia makes a peace deal that also includes US control over the ZAES and its operation”, Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s University of Bremen, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, blackouts in Crimea have become unpredictable and distressing, a Crimea local told Al Jazeera.

“They switch the power off and switch it back on without any warning. Then again – on and off, on and off. My fridge died,” said a resident of Simferopol, Crimea’s administrative capital, on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.

Russia understands that improved power supply is a prerequisite for its efforts to restore occupied Ukrainian regions and conquer more Ukrainian land, said an observer.

Moscow needs the plant to “cover the growing [energy] consumption in the region, considering not just occupied Crimea, but also the occupied areas [above the Sea of] Azov. And also within the context of Russia’s plan to occupy part of the Zaporizhia region,” Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch told Al Jazeera.

Greenpeace said that its detailed analysis of high-resolution satellite images taken after what Putin alleged were Ukrainian strikes showed that he was bluffing.

“There is no evidence of any military strikes in the area surrounding the pylons and network of power lines in this part of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” the international environmentalist group said on October 1.

The images showed that the power towers remained in position and there were no craters left by explosions around the lines, it said.

Greenpeace concluded that the blackout at the plant is “a deliberate act of sabotage by Russia” whose aim is to “permanently disconnect the plant from the Ukraine grid and connect the nuclear plant to the grid occupied by Russia”.

Iranian FM warns that Europe has ‘eliminated justification for talks’ with UN nuclear watchdog after triggering snapback sanctions.

Iran’s foreign minister has declared that cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog is “no longer relevant” after Western countries reinstated international sanctions on the country.

“The Cairo agreement is no longer relevant for our cooperation with the IAEA,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, referring to a deal signed last month with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

That agreement had laid out a framework for renewed inspections and monitoring after Tehran suspended cooperation following Israeli and United States attacks on its nuclear facilities in June.

However, the deal lost significance after Britain, France and Germany – all signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord – triggered the return of UN sanctions, accusing Iran of breaching its commitments, claims which Tehran has rejected.

“The three European countries thought they had leverage in their hands, threatening to implement a snapback,” Araghchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran. “Now they have used this lever and seen the results. The three European countries have definitely diminished their role and almost eliminated the justification for negotiations with them.”

He added that the European trio “will have a much smaller role than in the past” in any future talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Double standards

Tehran has accused the IAEA of double standards, saying the agency failed to condemn Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites despite its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Western states, led by the US and supported by Israel, have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons – allegations Tehran strongly denies. Iran insists its programme is purely civilian and that it retains the right to enrich uranium under the NPT.

Some Iranian lawmakers have suggested withdrawing from the NPT altogether, though President Masoud Pezeshkian has maintained that Iran will remain committed to its treaty obligations.

Araghchi said Tehran’s “decision regarding cooperation with the agency will be announced”, without elaborating, but noted that “there is still room for diplomacy”.

Talks between Iran and the US that began in April to revive a broader nuclear agreement collapsed after Israeli attacks in June targeted Iranian nuclear, military and residential sites.

Tehran has since accused Washington of sabotaging diplomacy and demanded guarantees and recognition of its rights before any potential resumption of negotiations.

Iran has repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel is widely believed to possess an undeclared nuclear arsenal of dozens of atomic bombs.

In a rare appearance at the United Nations, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong staunchly defended the country’s nuclear programme. It was the first time North Korea had dispatched an official from Pyongyang to address the UN General Assembly since 2018.

Kim Jong Un references ‘new important nuclear strategy’ in high-level meeting with scientists and military officials.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has directed top officials to strengthen the nation’s “nuclear shield and sword”, saying only a “nuclear counteraction” could safeguard his country’s security.

In a meeting with nuclear scientists and technicians on Friday, including Hong Sung-mu, a senior official believed to have spearheaded North Korea’s nuclear programme, Kim said the production of nuclear materials and weapons was an “essential top priority”, according to state media.

“The powerful deterrent, namely, the logic of peacekeeping and security by force with nuclear forces as its backbone is the invariable stand of the DPRK,” Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea’s official name.

Kim also made reference to “main tasks” that had been carried out by the country’s nuclear weapons research institute with regard to “a new important nuclear strategy”, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency reported.

The North Korean leader did not provide details regarding that new strategy.

“Comrade Kim Jong Un said we must constantly sharpen and renew the nuclear shield and sword that can reliably guarantee national sovereignty, security and interests and the right to development,” KCNA added.

Kim’s meeting with his nuclear scientists and military officials follows just days after South Korea said Pyongyang was presumed to possess as much as 2,000kg (2 tonnes) of highly-enriched uranium.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on Thursday that just 10-12kg (22-26lbs) of enriched uranium was adequate to build a nuclear bomb.

“Even at this very hour, uranium centrifuges at four locations (in North Korea) are running, probably accumulating nuclear materials,” Chung said, according to Yonhap.

The minister also said it was now impossible to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme through the forces of sanctions, but the resumption of talks between Pyongyang and Washington could offer a “breakthrough” to denuclearisation efforts.

“It will be desirable for [talks] to take place as soon as possible,” the minister said.

Kim said recently there was no reason to avoid dialogue with the US if Washington ceased insisting that his country give up nuclear weapons.

“Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump,” Kim said, according to KCNA, referring to meeting Trump three times during the United States president’s first administration.

“If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States,” Kim was quoted as saying.

“The world already knows full well what the United States does after it makes a country give up its nuclear weapons and disarms,” Kim said.

“We will never give up our nuclear weapons,” he added.

Here are the key events on day 1,311 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, September 27:

Fighting

• A Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kherson region killed a 74-year-old woman and injured two other people, Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a post on Telegram. About 70 homes and an administration building were damaged in the attack, Prokudin said.
• Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck Russia’s Afipsky oil refinery. “Confirmed collision and fire,” the General Staff said in a post on Facebook, adding that the degree of damage was being investigated.
• Russian forces have occupied the Ukrainian village of Yunakivka in the Sumy region, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russia on Friday accused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of making “irresponsible” threats after he said Moscow’s top officials should check for bomb shelters near the Kremlin if the country does not stop its offensive on Ukraine.
• In an interview with United States media outlet Axios, published on Thursday, President Zelenskyy said Russian officials “have to know where their bomb shelters are”, adding: “If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case.”
• US President Donald Trump told Zelenskyy he was open to lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American-made long-range weapons to strike deep inside Russia, but did not commit to doing so in their meeting on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed officials.
• Axios also reported on Friday that Zelenskyy asked Trump for Tomahawk missiles, citing unnamed sources.

Regional security

• Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military had recently “recorded violations of our airspace by reconnaissance drones, which are likely Hungarian”, along the country’s border with its neighbour. Speaking later in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy referred to “very strange incidents” and called for “thorough checks”.
• Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto replied in a post on X, saying: “President Zelenskyy is losing his mind to his anti-Hungarian obsession. He’s now starting to see things that aren’t there.”
• Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv had imposed an entry ban on three high-ranking Hungarian military officials, responding to an earlier entry ban imposed by Hungary on Ukrainian military officials.
• European Union Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said EU defence ministers have agreed to develop a “drone wall” along their borders with Russia and Ukraine, amid increasing reports of Russian violations of EU airspace.

• Moldova’s electoral commission barred two pro-Russian parties from taking part in this Sunday’s parliamentary election, a high-stakes vote overshadowed by claims of Russian interference.
• Serbian police arrested two people on Friday, accusing them of running “combat-tactical training” for dozens of protesters in advance of tense Moldovan parliamentary elections this weekend.
• The arrests come after Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, accused Russia of paying “hundreds of people” to destabilise the country before Sunday’s vote.

Energy

• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko put forward plans to either expand his country’s only existing nuclear power plant or build a second plant in order to supply energy to Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, during a meeting at the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
• Lukashenko also said after the meeting that he had reached an agreement for Russia to provide gas to Belarus for the next five years, RIA reported.
• Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of Belarus’s opposition, told The Associated Press news agency that the energy plans put “all of Europe at risk” and “proves once again” that Lukashenko “is complicit in Russian aggression”.

Four countries vote to stop sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine vote against sanctions relief.

The United Nations Security Council has voted not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, delivering a major economic blow that Tehran claims is “politically biased”.

A resolution on Friday to block the sanctions fell in the Security Council by a vote of four to nine, meaning European sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand.

Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine UNSC members voted against sanctions relief. Two countries abstained.

The vote follows a 30-day process launched in late August by Britain, France and Germany – known as the E3 – to reinstate sanctions unless Tehran meets their demands.

Iran says Europeans ‘misusing JCPOA mechanism’

Iranian officials have accused the European trio of abusing the dispute mechanism contained in the 2015 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which allows for the application of sanctions under a “snapback mechanism”.

“What Europeans are doing is politically biased and politically motivated … They are wrong on different levels by trying to misuse the mechanism embedded in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The Europeans offered to delay the snapback for up to six months if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors and engaged in talks with the US.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that Tehran had presented a “reasonable and actionable plan” and insisted Iran remains committed to the NPT.

But the E3 accuse Tehran of breaching their nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under the JCPOA. The UN’s nuclear watchdog board also ruled back in June that Iran was not respecting international nuclear safeguards.

‘Clock is ticking for high-level diplomacy’

The UNSC vote allowing sanctions to snap back is not the complete “end of negotiations,” as the parties have just over a week to come up with a last-ditch deal, said Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN.

“It’s the week where world leaders are all here in New York for the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, so it sets the stage for high-level diplomacy between Iran and particularly the three European countries,” said Bays. But “we’re reaching the end of this high-stakes diplomacy, and the clock really is ticking.”

Under the JCPOA – signed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia and the EU – Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. But the agreement unravelled in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed unilateral sanctions.

Tensions escalated further earlier this summer, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran, with Israeli and US forces striking several nuclear facilities.

Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but affirmed its right to peacefully pursue nuclear energy.

Germany says it’s possible to temporarily delay sanctions after E3’s top diplomats hold call with Iranian counterpart.

Germany says the “ball is still in Iran’s court” after the French, British and German foreign ministers held talks by phone with their Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Wednesday’s phone call came after the European powers last month triggered a 30-day deadline for “snapback” sanctions to come into force in the absence of a negotiated deal on the Iranian nuclear programme.

A German Federal Foreign Office spokesman told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that the offer from the so-called E3 powers “to discuss a temporary extension of the snapback if Iran fulfils certain conditions remains on the table” but added: “At this point, the steps taken by Iran have not been sufficient.”

Before the call, Tehran called for a “positive approach and goodwill” from the E3.

The E3 has been warning Tehran for weeks that United Nations sanctions could be reimposed by October when a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers expires.

A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned that renewing the sanctions would have consequences.

The E3 has accused Tehran of violating provisions of the 2015 nuclear pact, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement, which all three countries signed, saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions on its economy.

A component of the nuclear deal, the “snapback” mechanism, allows sanctions to be reimposed quickly if Iran is found to be in violation of the accord.

The call, which also included European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, followed an agreement reached by Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week on resuming cooperation between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog, including in principle the inspection of nuclear sites. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has backed renewed nuclear inspections.

Earlier in the week, Iran was pushing for a resolution prohibiting attacks on nuclear installations at the IAEA’s General Conference, which started on Monday in Vienna and ends on Friday.

According to Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, Behrouz Kamalvandi, who is in Vienna, the United States is putting pressure on member states to block the resolution and has “even threatened the agency that they will cut off assistance to the organisation”.

During a 12-day conflict in June, Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming Iran was getting too close to being able to produce a nuclear weapon, and IAEA inspections were interrupted over security concerns and complaints by Tehran.

Resumed cooperation between Iran and the IAEA is one of the three conditions set by European powers to hold off on completing the UN snapback mechanism, which they invoked in August.

“It is a natural expectation that Iran’s positive approach and goodwill should be reciprocated by the European side. … If some European parties start nagging this is not enough, that would mean they do not accept the IAEA,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday.

“We hope that with contacts like today’s and future ones, all parties will come to the conclusion that escalating tensions and perpetuating the current situation is not in anyone’s interest.”

Since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, the Board of Governors of the IAEA has adopted four Western-backed censure resolutions against Iran, which maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Neither US intelligence nor the IAEA found earlier this year that Iran was pursuing an atomic weapon.

Great Britain is set to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump this week, honouring the president of the United States with something no other American leader has ever received: a second state visit.

Trump is set to arrive in London late on Tuesday for a visit that coincides with tough trade negotiations between the US and many of its key trading partners, including the United Kingdom. During his stay, both countries plan to announce several deals on technology and civil nuclear energy, and British leaders hope to finalise an agreement on metal tariffs.

Trump and his wife, Melania, will be treated to royal pageantry throughout their two-day stay, including a ceremonial welcome from King Charles at Windsor Castle. The British government is confident that royal soft power will appeal to Trump’s sense of flamboyance.

Before setting off on Tuesday, Trump said he was looking forward to meeting with his friend, King Charles III, whom he described as an “elegant gentleman”.

The president said being welcomed for a second state visit was a first, and noted how it was planned for Windsor Castle, rather than Buckingham Palace.

“I don’t want to say one is better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate,” the president added, noting that much of his trip will be focused on trade.

The state visit will include a glittering banquet and a procession in a horse-drawn carriage. For his part, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hopes Trump’s visit will offer a measure of distraction from simmering speculation about his leadership amid plummeting approval ratings and high-profile resignations.

Lord Mandelson’s recent sacking as UK ambassador to the US, following new revelations concerning his friendship with child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has already cast a diplomatic pall over Trump’s visit. The president’s own links to Epstein have also generated plenty of headlines in recent weeks.

When and where

Trump will officially be welcomed to the UK on Tuesday evening by US Ambassador Warren Stephens, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and Viscount Hood, the king’s lord-in-waiting. On Wednesday morning, the royal activities will begin, with a formal greeting by the king and Queen Camilla, along with Prince William and Princess Catherine, at Windsor Castle. Later that day, he will enjoy a royal salute at the castle and a flypast from the Red Arrows and the carriage procession.

The president will then be treated to lunch with the extended royal family before laying a wreath at Queen Elizabeth II’s tomb in St George’s Chapel.

On Wednesday night, Trump will be the guest of honour at a formal state banquet at the castle.

The president will bid farewell to the royals on Thursday morning before he meets Starmer.

Trade tops agenda

Starmer will host Trump at Chequers, his country residence, on Thursday to discuss various matters, including security in Ukraine. Starmer’s ultimate aim, however, is to ensure that Trump makes good on his promise to lower tariffs on steel and aluminium.

The UK was the first country to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the Trump administration in May. Under that deal, the US planned to reduce tariffs on aluminium and steel from 25 percent to zero, but that has not happened yet.

“When it comes to steel, we will make sure that we have an announcement as soon as possible,” Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC on Sunday. Other ministers have expressed optimism that a deal on base metals can be secured during Trump’s visit.

The two countries are also expected to sign a multibillion-dollar deal to develop small nuclear projects, which could, in some cases, help to power new artificial intelligence data centres. On Monday, Starmer announced a joint US-UK project to build a fleet of small modular reactors.

“The UK-US relationship is the strongest in the world,” a representative from Starmer’s office told reporters. “This week, we are delivering a step change in that relationship.”

Investment deals?

A major talking point will be a new potential technology partnership, involving enhanced US investment in the UK and greater British cooperation with Silicon Valley on AI and quantum computing.

That had been Lord Mandelson’s priority and something he described in his outgoing letter to embassy staff last week as his “personal pride and joy” that he claimed would “help write the next chapter of the special relationship” between the US and the UK. Mandelson’s permanent replacement has yet to be named, but James Roscoe is serving as interim ambassador to the US.

Nvidia, OpenAI and Google are expected to announce investment deals as part of the partnership, according to the Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, the British government recently secured 1.25 billion pounds ($1.7bn) in private investment pledges from PayPal and Bank of America.

Elsewhere, private equity firm Blackstone plans to invest 100 billion pounds ($136bn) into British assets over the next decade, with a focus on physical infrastructure. The investment will be part of a previously announced $500bn package of investment into Europe.

Why is this trip significant?

This is Trump’s second visit to the UK in the last two months, following his trip to Scotland in July, but this week marks his second state visit, which no other US president has ever enjoyed. In 2019, Trump was hosted for a state visit by Queen Elizabeth II.

The timing is not ideal. Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US on September 11, after emails were published that revealed he urged Epstein to fight for early release from prison in 2008.

Trump’s friendship with Epstein has also exposed him to damaging scrutiny, including from his support base. Democrats in the House of Representatives recently released a birthday letter he allegedly wrote to Epstein in 2003, which Trump has denied writing.

For his part, Starmer hopes the pomp of a state visit will offer cover for his own domestic challenges, including criticism about him proscribing the Palestine Action group as a “terror organisation”.

Following missteps on welfare reform, a slapdash cabinet reshuffle and poor economic growth, several lawmakers are increasingly questioning Starmer’s judgement, especially with Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party surging ahead in the polls.

Starmer’s main goal will be to champion any wins secured during Trump’s visit.

But the president’s stay will also face challenges as local protests are expected in opposition to Trump’s stay at Windsor Castle.

The prime minister will also try to convince Trump that Russia’s incursion of 20 drones into Polish airspace last Wednesday was not an accident, as Trump has suggested.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski rejected that theory on September 12 during a news conference in Kyiv. “We don’t believe in 20 mistakes at the same time,” he said.

Finally, Starmer’s spokesperson said there would also be announcements on deepening cultural ties, including promoting basketball in the UK and developing partnerships between heritage and art institutions.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s authorities are discussing what comes next following an agreement with the global nuclear watchdog, as they urge the region to go beyond issuing statements in reaction to Israel’s attack on Qatar.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is heading to an emergency meeting of the parliament’s national security commission on Saturday evening, with hardline lawmakers looking for answers as to whether the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be allowed to access nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel in June.

He is expected to reassure the hardline-dominated parliament that no access will be given to the IAEA without strict permission from the top echelon.

Araghchi had reached an agreement with the IAEA in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, to try to resume cooperation that had been suspended after Tehran accused the nuclear watchdog and its chief, Rafael Grossi, of having paved the way for the strikes.

Grossi told the IAEA Board of Governors on Wednesday that the technical agreement includes “all facilities and installations in Iran” and “contemplates the required reporting on all the attacked facilities, including the nuclear material present”.

But Araghchi told Iranian state television that agency inspectors have no access to Iranian nuclear sites beyond the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.

He said case-by-case permission would have to be granted by the country’s Supreme National Security Council, which includes the president, parliament and judiciary chiefs, several ministers, military commanders and those appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Araghchi also confirmed that Iran’s high-enriched uranium is “under the rubble of bombed facilities”, and said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran is investigating and assessing whether the sites are accessible or contaminated.

Europe’s ‘snapback’ and Iranian threats

Amir Hayat Moghadam, a hardline member of the parliament’s national security commission, claimed that Araghchi said Iran will leave the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if United Nations sanctions are reinstated against the country, according to the state-linked Tabnak news website, ahead of the meeting on Saturday.

Araghchi and the foreign ministry have confirmed that legislation is in motion aimed at abandoning the global non-proliferation pact, but that finalising such a move would only potentially come if the “snapback” mechanism of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is abused by European countries.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback mechanism in late August and were slammed by China and Russia, the other signatories to the landmark nuclear accord that the US unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

The European countries, known as the E3, gave Iran one month to reach a new agreement over its nuclear programme or face international sanctions.

Iran maintains that the three would lose legitimacy if they go through with the threat, and will “empower the US and marginalise Europe in future diplomatic engagements”.

Despite the rising tensions, Araghchi announced on Thursday that Iran and France are close to agreeing on a prisoner swap and expressed hope that an exchange would happen “in the coming days”.

Iran’s top diplomat did not detail which French prisoners held in Iran would be released, but said the exchange would include Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman arrested in France over posts about Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Esfandiari, a translator living in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February, with French authorities accusing her of incitement to and glorification of “terrorism” and “hate speech” against Jewish people over posts on Telegram.

Tehran calls her a “hostage”, employing the word used by France and other European countries that have accused Iran for decades of holding foreign and dual-national citizens in relation to espionage charges.

‘Joint operation room against Israeli madness’

Fighting off surging pressure from the US and its allies, Iranian authorities have tried to warm ties with China and Russia, and to find common ground with regional players, particularly Arab neighbours, over Israel’s aggressions.

After Israel attacked Qatar for the first time this week in a failed attempt to assassinate the top leadership of Hamas, Iran joined the chorus of regional and international condemnation.

Ali Larijani, who was appointed Iran’s security chief last month, went further on Saturday and issued what he called a “warning to Islamic governments”.

“Holding a conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation filled with speeches without any practical outcome (as happens in UN Security Council meetings) in truth amounts to issuing a new order of aggression in favour of the Zionist entity!”, he wrote on X in Arabic, in reference to Israel.

“At the very least, form a ‘joint operations room’ against the madness of this entity,” Larijani said, adding that “you have done nothing for the hungry and oppressed Muslims in Palestine, at least take a modest decision to avert your own annihilation”.

Qatar announced on Saturday that it will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday in Doha, preceded by a preparatory meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said in a statement that “the summit will discuss a draft statement” on the Israeli attack.

Iran said President Masoud Pezeshkian will represent the country in the summit.

Abbas Araghchi says despite ‘snapback’ sanctions process, Iran is open to a ‘realistic and lasting bargain’.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Britain, France and Germany of pursuing a “reckless” strategy on his country’s nuclear programme, warning that their alignment with Washington will only diminish Europe’s global standing.

Writing in The Guardian on Sunday, Araghchi said the decision by the so-called E3 to trigger a process that could reinstate United Nations sanctions “lacks any legal standing” and is bound to fail.

“The truth is that they are intently pursuing a reckless course of action … This is a grave miscalculation that is bound to backfire,” Araghchi wrote.

In August, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s largest economies – triggered a 30-day process to activate “snapback” sanctions over what they called “significant” violations of a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme.

The United States, which bombed three nuclear facilities in June as part of an Israeli assault on Iran, has welcomed the European countries’ move.

Araghchi accused the three powers of ignoring the fact that it was the US, not Iran, that withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). While Tehran took what he described as “lawful remedial measures” under the accord, the E3 failed to uphold their own obligations.

Araghchi noted that European leaders once pledged to protect trade with Iran after US President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018. “None of it materialised,” he wrote, adding that Europe’s promises of “strategic autonomy” collapsed under US pressure.

Instead, he argued, Europe has acted as a bystander, cheering Washington’s aggressive approach. “Openly cheerleading illegal military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities protected by international law – as Germany’s chancellor has done – does not constitute ‘participation’” in the deal, he wrote.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested in June that the West is benefitting from the Israeli assault against Iran.

“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said.

Araghchi stressed in his Guardian column that Tehran remains open to dialogue. “[Iran] is ready to forge a realistic and lasting bargain that entails ironclad oversight and curbs on enrichment in exchange for the termination of sanctions,” he said.

He cautioned that ignoring this chance could plunge the region into deeper instability, especially amid escalating tensions with Israel. “The powerful armed forces of Iran are ready and able to once again pummel Israel into running to ‘daddy’ to be bailed out,” Araghchi warned, arguing that Israeli provocations risk dragging the US into costly conflicts.

The Trump administration had also claimed that the door remains open for talks with Iran.

“The United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran – in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement following the E3 announcement on sanctions last month.

“Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

A round of nuclear talks between US and Iranian officials was set to take place on June 15. But Israeli bombs started falling on Tehran two days before the scheduled negotiations, postponing them indefinitely.

Washington insists that Iran cannot enrich uranium domestically, but Iran insists that its right to enrichment is non-negotiable.

The 2015 nuclear deal – which Trump nixed during his first term as US president – gives Iran the right to enrich uranium at a low level for civilian purposes under a strict monitoring system.

The snapback mechanism in the JCPOA gave any party to the agreement – the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia or China – the power to kick-start a process to revive six UN Security Council sanctions resolutions.

And the snapback is veto-proof, meaning Russia and China, both allies of Iran, cannot block the restoration of the sanctions.

In 2020, the US tried to activate the snapback clause of the JCPOA, but the effort failed because Washington was no longer a participant in the agreement.

The IAEA has urged Syria to cooperate fully over allegations it had been building a covert nuclear reactor at the site – allegations Syria denies.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has said its inspectors discovered uranium particles at a site in Syria it suspects was once used as part of a clandestine nuclear programme run by the former government of Bashar al-Assad.

Last year, inspectors visited and took environmental samples at “three locations that were allegedly functionally related” to the remote desert site Deir el-Zour, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Fredrik Dahl said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Analysis revealed a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations. Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium ore concentrate to uranium oxide,” said Dahl. This would be typical of a nuclear power reactor.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi reported these findings to the agency’s board of directors on Monday in a report on developments in Syria.

The report also stated that “the current Syrian authorities indicated that they had no information that might explain the presence of such uranium particles.”

The IAEA urged Syria on Tuesday to cooperate fully over allegations that it had been building a covert nuclear reactor at Deir Az Zor.

Syria has repeatedly denied these allegations.

The Deir Az Zor site only became public knowledge after Israel – which is the Middle East’s only state with nuclear weapons, although it has not declared its own programme – launched air strikes in 2007, destroying the facility. Syria later levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions.

An IAEA team visited some sites of interest last year while al-Assad was still in power. After al-Assad’s fall last December in a rebel offensive on the capital Damascus, the new government led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa agreed to cooperate with the agency and again provided inspectors access to the site where the uranium particles had been found.

They took more samples there and “will evaluate the results of all of the environmental samples taken at this location and the information acquired from the planned visit to the site, and may conduct follow-up activities, as necessary”, Dahl said on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press news agency in June during a visit to Damascus, Grossi said al-Sharaa had expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future. The IAEA said Syria granted its inspectors access to the location for a second time to gather more samples.

A number of other countries in the region are pursuing nuclear energy in some form. Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.

He also said the IAEA is prepared to help Syria rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.

The nuclear danger today is greater than at any time since the Cold War. The world faces the prospect of a renewed arms race, this time unconstrained by the agreements that for decades kept catastrophe at bay. It is estimated that there are now 12,241 nuclear warheads worldwide. Arms control is unravelling before our eyes: Inspections under the New START treaty, the last remaining arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, remain suspended, and with its expiration in February 2026, there is no successor in sight. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is gone, the Treaty on Open Skies has been abandoned, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has still not entered into force. At the same time, the world’s geopolitical landscape is more volatile than ever.

Deep down, everyone knows nuclear weapons are a danger. We know their destructive power: Instant annihilation, radiation sickness, cancers, poisoned land, and generations of suffering. Yet the international community increasingly accepts the idea that nuclear weapons make countries safe. It is true that, at the level of geopolitics, they can provide a shield of deterrence. But on a global scale, they are a sword of Damocles hanging over all of humanity. The longer we pretend they guarantee security, the greater the danger that one day deterrence will fail. This danger is becoming even more disturbing with the growing reliance on artificial intelligence in military technologies.

I know this danger all too well, not in theory, but in my body and in my country’s history. I was born without arms, a legacy of nuclear testing carried out by the Soviet Union in my homeland of Kazakhstan. From 1949 to 1989, more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site. More than a million people were directly exposed to radiation, and the consequences are still felt today in the third and fourth generations: Cancers, birth defects, environmental destruction, and intergenerational trauma. My own life is a testimony to the human price paid for so-called “national security”. I became an artist, painting with my mouth and feet, and an activist so my country’s tragedy will not be repeated anywhere else.

What Kazakhstan went through is the reason why, since independence, my country has been a leading proponent of nuclear disarmament. We inherited the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal and chose to give it up voluntarily. We shut down the Semipalatinsk test site permanently. We established the International Low-Enriched Uranium Bank in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, creating a global backstop against nuclear fuel crises. And today, Kazakhstan is preparing to build its first nuclear power plant. This is an important distinction: Our country is not against nuclear energy, which can be harnessed peacefully to meet the growing demand for electricity and reduce carbon emissions. But nuclear weapons are a different matter entirely. They do not light homes; they only destroy them. That is why it was Kazakhstan’s initiative at the United Nations that led to the proclamation of August 29, the date on which the Semipalatinsk test site was officially closed, as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

Kazakhstan has done its part. But this fight is bigger than us. The world needs much wider support if we are to reduce the risk posed by nuclear weapons. I acknowledge that the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons may feel distant today. But there are concrete steps the international community can take right now to reduce the danger, if only the will can be found.

First, we must address the madness of keeping thousands of warheads on hair-trigger alert. About 2,100 nuclear weapons remain on short-notice alert, with leaders given only minutes to decide whether to unleash them. In such a compressed timeframe, the risk of false alarms, technical glitches, or even AI-driven misjudgments grows intolerably high. De-alerting these weapons is the most obvious near-term risk-reduction step. Human survival should not rest on a rushed decision made in mere moments.

Second, nuclear-armed states must publicly reaffirm their moratorium on nuclear testing, regardless of treaty politics. If they cannot yet ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, they should at least pledge never to test again. That is the bare minimum owed to the victims of past testing, from Semey to the Pacific and beyond.

Third, we must reaffirm the humanitarian principle that nuclear weapons are inhumane by their very nature. That is the moral heart of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Even if governments cannot yet sign or ratify it, they can embrace its spirit, recognising that no state, no people, can ever respond adequately to the detonation of a nuclear device in a populated area.

Fourth, the world must prevent new frontiers of nuclear danger. We must reaffirm the ban on nuclear weapons in orbit, ensuring that outer space remains free of these doomsday devices. And all states should commit that decisions on nuclear use will never be delegated to artificial intelligence.

Finally, we must fight the greatest danger of all: Forgetting. Each August 29, we should not only mark the International Day against Nuclear Tests but also commit to education and remembrance. Every schoolchild should know what happened at Semey, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, at Bikini Atoll. Only when the world remembers our suffering will it choose never to repeat it.

The vision of a world free of nuclear weapons is not naive, and it is not impossible. Kazakhstan showed what is possible when it closed the Semipalatinsk test site and renounced its nuclear arsenal. If a nation that endured hundreds of nuclear tests could choose a nuclear-weapon-free path, others can too. The question is whether humanity has the courage to do it.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Washington, DC – The decision by European countries to impose “snapback” sanctions against Iran may further exacerbate international tensions, experts say, as fears of a regional war loom over the Middle East.

On Thursday, Germany, France and the United Kingdom – Europe’s largest economies – triggered a 30-day process to reimpose sanctions over what they called “significant” violations of a 2015 agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programme.

“What we’re heading toward is the snapback scenario where the sanctions come back and Iran is likely to retaliate in some way that’s unhelpful,” said Ryan Costello, the policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

And the tensions could escalate into renewed violence after the Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year. “It’s another kind of domino falling on the way toward the June war reigniting,” Costello said.

The United States, which bombed three nuclear facilities in June as part of an Israeli assault on Iran, has welcomed the European countries’ move.

But the administration of US President Donald Trump has also kept the door open for talks with Iran.

“The United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran – in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

Costello, however, underscored that Iran was at the table before Israel launched its 12-day war.

A round of nuclear talks between US and Iranian officials was set to take place on June 15. But Israeli bombs started falling on Tehran two days before the scheduled negotiations, postponing them indefinitely.

Costello said that, in order to return to the nuclear discussions, the US and Europe first have to rebuild trust with Iran.

“The overwhelming sentiment in Iran is that those talks were all a ruse – that Israel was going to attack Iran with US support to some degree regardless of what they did at the negotiating table,” he told Al Jazeera. “So both the Europeans and the US have to reflect that reality.”

What is snapback?

The current crisis can be traced back to Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during his first term in 2018.

The 2015 accord – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – compelled Iran to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy.

But to ensure that Iran can be penalised quickly if it violates the agreement, the deal included a “snapback” mechanism to reimpose a series of United Nations sanctions.

The mechanism gave any signatory to the agreement – the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia or China – the power to kickstart a process to revive six UN Security Council sanctions resolutions.

And the snapback is veto-proof, meaning Russia and China, both allies of Iran, cannot block the restoration of the sanctions.

In 2020, the US tried to activate the snapback clause of the JCPOA, but the effort failed because Washington was no longer a party in the agreement.

Since the US exit in 2018, Iran has been gradually escalating its nuclear programme, but Iranian officials insist that the country is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

Thursday’s decision to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran appears to be timed against the expiration of the snapback provision in October, which marks 10 years after the nuclear deal came into effect.

Experts say the governments in Paris, London and Berlin are essentially invoking a provision from a long-abandoned agreement to secure UN sanctions against Iran.

Sina Toossi, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, said the snapback was included in the JCPOA to ensure that all sides abide by the deal, but European powers are using it to further pressure Iran.

“The overall US and European approach to Iran has been just brute power – like might is right,” Toossi told Al Jazeera.

“Anything about legal contacts and history and international norms doesn’t matter. They just want to use this instrument to unilaterally reimpose sanctions on Iran.”

What does Europe want?

France, Germany and the UK, however, have outlined three conditions to delay the snapback sanctions by six months.

The demands are for Iran to resume direct talks with the US, restore full cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, and disclose the new location for its heavily enriched uranium after the US and Israeli strikes.

Some US reports have suggested that the uranium stockpiles are buried under the now-damaged nuclear facilities, but Iran may have also moved the material before the US bombed its nuclear sites.

Analysts say that, while the European conditions may seem reasonable on the surface, they are challenging for the Iranian leadership to agree to.

The European powers want Tehran to recommit to negotiations with Washington, without assurances from the US and Israel that they wouldn’t attack again.

Tehran had also suspended full cooperation with the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the watchdog failed to condemn the US and Israeli attacks, which it said breached international law.

Earlier this month, Iran allowed some IAEA inspectors back into the country, but the UN agency still has not accessed or assessed the damage at Iran’s enrichment facilities.

As for the uranium, Iran fears that disclosing the location of the stockpiles will only invite Israel or the US to bomb them.

“If they make the location of that enriched uranium very clearly known to the wider world, including US and Israel, then it’s a blinking target for follow-up US or Israeli strikes on those facilities to set Iran’s programme back further,” Costello told Al Jazeera.

“So because that hasn’t been ruled out, it becomes very difficult for Iran to strike such an agreement.”

Impact of snapback

But the three European powers argued that the demands are necessary because Iran’s nuclear programme constitutes a “clear threat to international peace and security”.

“Today, Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPOA is clear and deliberate, and sites of major proliferation concern in Iran are outside of IAEA monitoring,” the countries said in a statement.

“Iran has no civilian justification for its high enriched uranium stockpile … which is also unaccounted for by the IAEA.”

Tehran has rejected that argument, saying that European powers had breached the 2015 agreement first by accepting the US’s 2018 decision to restore secondary sanctions on Iran’s economy.

Most countries and businesses around the world enforce US sanctions out of fear of being sanctioned themselves.

The Iranian economy is already reeling under heavy US sanctions with global implications.

But the UN sanctions – which include an arms embargo – could enable unilateral sanctions by other countries. They may also further undermine trust in the Iranian economy. Already, the Iranian rial fell sharply after Thursday’s announcement.

“There is more currency depreciation because of the snapback; it’s another psychological shock to the economy,” said Toossi.

Europe goes hawkish

Since the turn of the 21st century, European countries have been seen as a moderating influence on Washington’s hawkish impulses towards Iran.

Despite abiding by the US sanctions, European leaders had vocally opposed Trump’s exit from the JCPOA in 2018.

But since Trump returned to office in January, France, Germany and the UK appear to have taken a harder line against Tehran.

In June, European powers not only failed to condemn Israel’s unprovoked war on Iran, but they also seemed to endorse it. Chancellor Friedrich Merz even suggested Germany and the West are benefitting from the assault.

“This is dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” he said.

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a think tank that promotes diplomacy, said Europe’s new posture towards Iran is linked to its broader relationship with the US.

Iran has been accused of supplying Russia with drones to use in its war against Ukraine, so now Europe sees Tehran as a threat, Parsi said.

He also noted that nearly all trade between Europe and Iran has been destroyed by US sanctions.

“Iran simply does not matter that much for Europeans,” he told Al Jazeera in a TV interview.

“So doing something that endears Europe with the hardline elements in the Trump administration, I think, is something that is seen as valuable in Europe … given how tremendously strained the current transatlantic relationship is right now.”

For now, the nuclear tensions continue to grind on. The US continues to demand that Iran dismantle its nuclear programme, while Tehran insists on maintaining uranium enrichment domestically.

Toossi said there’s an irony in the whole affair: The three European powers are invoking a provision of the JCPOA that grants Iran the right to uranium enrichment, but they are using it to align with the US demand for no more enrichment.

“The hypocrisies and contradictions are just immense in all of this,” he said.

Three European powers are expected to reimpose punishing United Nations sanctions on Iran for ostensibly not engaging with the international community to reach a deal on its nuclear programme.

Known as the E3, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have given Iran until August 31 to make some tough decisions.

As the deadline looms, observers and analysts fear that reimposing UN sanctions will significantly escalate regional tensions and embolden Israel and the United States to attack Iran again.

Standoff

While the stakes are high, the demands by the E3 –  three of the six remaining signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal – aren’t so easy to meet, experts told Al Jazeera.

They want Iran to resume negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme and allow international inspectors back in to monitor sites and stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

The US quit the nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed its own sanctions on Iran.

In April and May this year, it entered nuclear talks with Iran, demanding that Iran give up its centrifuges – needed to highly enrich uranium – and “downblend” its current nuclear programme.

Downblending is a process where highly enriched uranium is diluted with low-enriched uranium.

But in June, the US changed its position and demanded that Iran give up its entire nuclear programme, a suggestion Iran rejected outright.

The US suspended talks, and Israel attacked Iran in June, in an apparent attempt to dismember the ruling government.  The “12-day war” saw the US join in to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.

Since then, the US has maintained that Iran must give up its nuclear programme as a precondition for new talks.

Iran has long stated that it has no interest in pursuing a nuclear bomb and that its programme is for civilian purposes.

Moreover, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian sectors such as energy, cancer research, and other scientific research.

Trita Parsi, Iran expert and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, told Al Jazeera the E3’s demands risk accelerating another round of regional conflict.

“If you restart talks at a moment when you know that talks will fail, then you ensure that military attacks will happen sooner rather than later,” Parsi told Al Jazeera.

Remnants of the JCPOA

The JCPOA was signed between Iran and the members of the UN Security Council (UNSC), plus Germany and the European Union.

The deal stipulated that Iran must not enrich uranium above 3.67 percent, far below weaponisation.

In return, the parties agreed to lift debilitating UN sanctions, yet any one of the signatories could reimpose sanctions unilaterally if they found Iran was not complying with the JCPOA.

When US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA in 2018, Iran accused the US of violating the deal and the Europeans of “indirectly” violating it by not providing options for Iran to avoid US sanctions.

Iran also notified the Europeans and the US that it would increase enrichment levels beyond JCPOA limits.

Experts believe Iran was increasing enrichment to gain leverage with Western states for a future deal, as Al Jazeera previously reported.

And after the 12-day war, Iran denied access to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is tasked with monitoring Iran’s nuclear sites under the NPT and the JCPOA.

Along with resuming talks with the US, the E3 requires Iran to grant access to IAEA inspectors in return for delaying the triggering of snapback sanctions for another six months.

Some within Iran’s leadership believe the IAEA leaked sensitive information to the US.

“One position coming out of Tehran is that their cooperation with the IAEA over the years prepared the ground for the [US] attacks…because the US and Israel had very clear mapping and info of the programme,” Negar Mortazavi, an expert on Iran with the Center for International Policy (CIP), said.

“There is now a big view in Iran’s domestic political space that maybe we should stop cooperating with the IAEA,” she added.

Iran is reportedly hiding some 400kg (880lb) of 60 percent enriched uranium, a level just below weapons-grade.

Iran views the 60 percent stockpile as its last bargaining chip vis-a-vis Washington, according to Hamidreza Azizi, an expert on Iran and visiting fellow with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWB).

He added that Iran is, therefore, reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of that uranium out of fear of giving up its last source of leverage in future negotiations.

“[The E3] wants complete transparency that removes the ambiguity around Iran’s most sensitive nuclear activities. From their perspective, only this would justify extending the snapback deadline,” Azizi told Al Jazeera.

Zero-sum game

Iran has reached out to the US to resume talks since June, according to CIP’s Mortazavi.

She added that, on the one hand, Iran refuses to project weakness after the war for fear of signalling that it will make concessions if attacked by the US and Israel, while, on the other hand, the US refuses to engage until Iran agrees to “zero enrichment”.

The US is also struggling to save face after Trump declared that Iran’s nuclear programme had been completely destroyed in June, an assessment quickly contradicted by US intelligence.

Yet any resumption of talks would be a clear admission that Iran’s nuclear programme is still very much functional, said Parsi.

Azizi, from SWB, believes that the E3 and Iran should consider reaching a limited and more flexible arrangement to avoid snapback sanctions.

This could entail resuming limited and reversible cooperation with the IAEA and establishing a roadmap for future talks with the US.

However, he’s not optimistic that the E3 will extend such an offer because it would like to locate the stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, which, in their view, is a serious nuclear proliferation threat.

Iran, for its part, seems ready to accept a deal that grants partial access to the IAEA. Inspectors from the agency reportedly arrived in Tehran on August 27, although the Iranian government said no deal had been reached with the IAEA as of yet.

Effect of sanctions?

If Iran doesn’t meet the E3’s demands, it will come under a conventional arms embargo, face restrictions on its ballistic missile development, and its top officials will have their assets frozen and travel bans issued for them.

Most notably, Iran will be ordered by the UNSC to stop uranium enrichment, as per the JCPOA. This could give Israel and the US the legitimacy of international law to try and “enforce” this order by attacking Iran again, argues Parsi.

“When you have a demand by the UN Security Council [saying] Iran should stop uranium enrichment, it means the US/Israel demand will suddenly have the force of international law behind it,” he told Al Jazeera.

Azizi believes the combination of snapback sanctions, Iran’s hidden stockpiles of enriched uranium and lack of IAEA inspections could lead to renewed conflict.

“Israel has already demonstrated its willingness to use force again … If Iran were to resume enrichment at scale or show signs of moving toward weaponisation under the cover of opacity, the risk of another Israeli attack would rise sharply,” he told Al Jazeera.

What’s more, Iran would be prohibited under UN resolutions from importing weapons from Russia or China, which, in theory, would make the government and its people more vulnerable to external threats.

China and Russia could ignore the sanctions, arguing they were an abusive attempt to force Iran to give up its nuclear programme.

UN resolutions are often ignored by the US, its allies, and other world powers to protect their interests.

Parsi argues that the E3’s threat of restoring UN sanctions is driven more by wanting to curry favour with the Trump administration than by any real concern for de-escalating tensions in the Middle East.

“Europeans want to get themselves on the same page with the US,” he told Al Jazeera.

“At the end of the day, what’s far more important to the Europeans is that they maintain good relations with the US, not work [to deescalate the situation] with Iran.”

There is no final agreement between the IAEA and Iran yet, says Iranian foreign minister, but talks will continue.

Iran says the return of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) does not mark the resumption of full cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

Inspectors from the IAEA have entered Iran with the consent of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“No final text has yet been approved on the new cooperation framework with the IAEA and views are being exchanged,” Abbas Araghchi said, in comments cited by the state broadcaster.

He noted that “the changing of the fuel of Bushehr nuclear reactor has to be done under the supervision of inspectors of the international agency”, the state news agency ICANA reported.

Iran suspended cooperation with the agency following a 12-day war with Israel in June, with Tehran pointing to the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Bushehr was not targeted in the attacks.

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi confirmed on Tuesday that a team of inspectors was “back in Iran”.

“When it comes to Iran, as you know, there are many facilities. Some were attacked, some were not,” Grossi told Fox News in an interview aired on Tuesday.

“So we are discussing what kind of … practical modalities can be implemented in order to facilitate the restart of our work there.”

The announcement comes after Iran held talks with the United Kingdom, France and Germany in Geneva on Tuesday, with Tehran seeking to avert the so-called snapback sanctions European powers have threatened to reimpose under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei warned Europe’s top three powers that reimposing sanctions on the country will have consequences.

The UK, France and Germany – parties to the 2015 deal – have threatened to trigger the accord’s “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.

Both sides will continue nuclear talks in the coming days.

Tuesday’s meeting was the second round of talks with European diplomats since the end of the June war, which began with an unprecedented Israeli surprise attack targeting senior military officials and nuclear facilities.

The conflict derailed Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the United States.

Israel says it launched the attacks to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran has repeatedly denied, insisting its programme is solely for civilian purposes such as energy production.

Under the JCPOA, Iran committed to regular inspections of its nuclear energy programme in return for relief on some Western sanctions. The nuclear deal was torpedoed in 2018 when Donald Trump, during his first term as president, unilaterally withdrew the US and slapped harsh sanctions on Iran.

Head of US Defense Intelligence Agency Jeffrey Kruse fired alongside two senior Navy officials in latest purge.

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s preliminary intelligence assessment angered President Donald Trump for reporting that the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites in June had inflicted limited damage, according to reports.

The Pentagon firings on Friday, which, according to US officials who spoke to the Reuters and Associated Press (AP) news agencies, also include two other senior military commanders, are the latest moves by the Trump administration to purge officials at the Department of Defense .

It was not immediately known on what grounds Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) since early 2024, was fired.

But President Trump had previously decried the agency’s initial findings on US strikes against Iran.

The initial DIA assessment – which was widely reported on by US media – contradicted claims by Trump that the strikes totally destroyed the nuclear sites, drawing the ire of both the president and officials within his administration.

Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA director”, a senior defence official said on condition of anonymity on Friday, without providing an explanation for the general’s departure.

Prior to becoming director of the DIA, Kruse served as the adviser for military affairs for the director of national intelligence, and also held positions including director of intelligence for the coalition against the ISIL (ISIS) group.

Hegseth also fired Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, who is chief of the Navy Reserve, as well as Rear Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, according to officials who spoke to both AP and Reuters.

All three military officials said they did not know why they were fired by the Trump administration, which has demanded loyalty across the government.

“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country,” said US Senator Mark Warner, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.

Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the US Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the US Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.

The chief of the US Air Force also made a surprise announcement on Monday that he planned to retire only halfway through his tenure.

Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants in top positions, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicisation of the traditionally neutral US military.

Earlier this year, Hegseth additionally ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.

News of Kruse’s firing came two days after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that she was revoking – on Trump’s orders – the security clearances of 37 current and former US intelligence professionals.

Gabbard has also announced the first major overhaul of her office since its creation, slashing personnel by more than 40 percent by October 1 and saving more than $700m per year.

Iran and European countries agree to resume nuclear talks next week despite threats of unilateral sanctions.

Iran and three major European powers have agreed to resume nuclear talks next week, even as the threat of revived sanctions looms.

Iranian state media reported on Friday that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a call with his French, British and German counterparts, during which they agreed deputy ministers would meet on Tuesday.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed the talks, warning that Europe was prepared to re-impose United Nations sanctions under the so-called “snapback” mechanism unless Iran committed to a verifiable and lasting deal. “Time is very short and Iran needs to engage substantively,” he said.

According to Iranian outlets, Araghchi rejected the threat, accusing the European trio of lacking “legal and moral competence” to trigger snapback sanctions and warning of consequences if they did so.

The three European governments, backed by the United States, have accused Tehran of advancing uranium enrichment in violation of international commitments and say its programme could be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran has said its work is strictly for civilian purposes, and Western governments have not provided any evidence that Tehran is weaponising its nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, has said Iran remains far from building a nuclear weapon. In March, US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard testified that intelligence agencies had found no evidence of Iran moving towards a bomb.

Talks between Iran and the US collapsed in June after Washington and Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day conflict.

Since then, IAEA inspectors have not been allowed into Iran’s facilities, despite the agency’s chief, Rafael Grossi, stressing that inspections are essential.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned the IAEA to abandon its “double standards” if it hopes to restore cooperation over the country’s nuclear programme, amid an acute mistrust following Israeli and US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, and the UN nuclear watchdog’s refusal to condemn the strikes.

In July, Pezeshkian signed a law suspending Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA, with Tehran making it clear that it no longer trusts the agency to act impartially.

Negotiations between Tehran and the Europeans last took place in Geneva on June 20, while the fighting was still under way. Little progress was reported at the time.

Iran’s state broadcaster said an Iranian delegation would travel to Vienna on Friday to meet IAEA officials, but offered no further details.

Scientists say warmer waters in the North Sea due to climate change have created conditions allowing jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

Four reactor units at one of France’s largest nuclear power stations have been forced to shut down due to a swarm of jellyfish in the plant’s water pumping stations, French energy group Electricite de France (EDF) said.

Three reactor units were automatically shut down on Sunday evening at Gravelines on the English Channel, followed by the fourth early on Monday morning, EDF said, adding that the safety of the plant, its employees and the environment was not at risk.

“These shutdowns are the result of the massive and unpredictable presence of jellyfish in the filter drums of the pumping stations,” EDF said in a statement.

The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and is cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.

Teams were carrying out inspections to restart the site “in complete safety”, EDF said, adding the reactors that were shut down are expected to restart on Thursday.

The beaches around Gravelines, between the major cities of Dunkirk and Calais, have seen an increase in jellyfish in recent years due to warming waters and the introduction of invasive species.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote in 2021 that jellyfish swarms incapacitating nuclear power plants is “neither new nor unknown” and there was substantial economic cost due to the forced closure of power plants.

Scientists are currently exploring ways to avert closures due to sea swarms, including using drones to map the movement of jellyfish, which would allow early intervention.

“Jellyfish breed faster when water is warmer, and because areas like the North Sea are becoming warmer, the reproductive window is getting wider and wider,” Derek Wright, marine biology consultant with the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Reuters news agency.

“Jellyfish can also hitch rides on tanker ships, entering the ships’ ballast tank in one port and often getting pumped out into waters halfway across the globe,” he said.

An invasive species known as the Asian Moon jellyfish, native to the Pacific Northwest, was first sighted in the North Sea in 2020. The species, which prefers still water with high levels of animal plankton, such as that in ports and canals, has caused similar problems before in ports and at nuclear plants in China, Japan, and India.

EDF said it did not know the species of jellyfish involved in the shutdown, but this is not the first time jellyfish have shut down a nuclear facility, though such incidents were “quite rare” – the last effect on EDF operations was in the 1990s.

There have been cases of plants in other countries shutting down due to jellyfish invasions, notably a three-day closure in Sweden in 2013 and a 1999 incident in Japan that caused a major drop in power output.

Experts say overfishing, plastic pollution and climate change have created conditions for jellyfish to thrive and reproduce.

EDF said there was no risk of a power shortage due to the shutdown, saying other energy sources, including solar power, were operational.