Great Britain, France and Germany yesterday officially announced to the UN that they are activating the mechanism for the restoration of large-scale sanctions against Iran, giving Tehran a 30-day deadline to provide access to its nuclear facilities or face deepening global economic isolation, the British newspaper "Guardian" reported, BTA writes.
British authorities stressed that the decision was not taken lightly and that intensive diplomatic efforts were made to avoid this step. They added that there is still time for diplomacy before the sanctions are restored after 30 days. This is expected to happen during the annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly.
According to London, the mechanism was activated because since 2019 Iran has been in a situation of significant non-compliance with the terms of the nuclear agreement reached in 2015. Tehran has been given sufficient opportunity to fulfill its commitments, but it has either been unwilling or unable to do so.
V. "The Wall Street Journal" specifies that Iran began to resume its nuclear program a year after the US withdrew from the nuclear deal during the first term of President Donald Trump. By June of this year, the country had exceeded almost all limits under the agreement and had accumulated enough enriched uranium to produce about 10 nuclear weapons.
"The international community has faced continuing serious concerns about the lack of credible assurances that Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes," the three European countries said in their letter triggering the process of reinstating sanctions.
The European decision was supported by Washington. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country would work with its European partners to "successfully restore international sanctions against Iran".
V. "The New York Times" also noted that activating the mechanism did not mean immediately imposing sanctions. It begins a 30-day period of consultations, during which Iranian and European diplomats are likely to intensify negotiations to avoid a return to the measures.
"We will continue to try to resolve this issue diplomatically", reads the statement of the three European countries quoted by the publication yesterday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the measure illegal, but did not specify how his country might respond. In a telephone conversation with his British, French and German counterparts yesterday, he said that Tehran "will respond appropriately to this illegal and unjust action by the three European countries in order to protect and guarantee national rights and interests" and called for "this wrong decision to be appropriately corrected in the coming days".
The official UN notification will unleash an almost unstoppable process that will end with the return, in just over a month, of six major UN sanctions against Iran that were lifted over the past decade, writes the publication "Foreign Policy".
These measures were intended to hinder Iran's ability to enrich uranium and acquire components necessary for the development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, as well as for the production of conventional weapons.
And although the sanctions do not directly affect the Iranian economy in the way that unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States do, they still pose a threat to the regime, which has been shaken by economic stagnation following Israeli and American air strikes.
With the return of sanctions, the world, including Investors, banks and markets are likely to "conclude that Iran will remain an isolated state for the foreseeable future", Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, told the publication.
The sanctions will in particular limit Tehran's ability to restore its offensive and defensive capabilities after the attacks by Israel and the United States in June.
With the start of the 30-day process for the return of global sanctions, the hammer falling on the heads of the ayatollahs is closer than ever, the Israeli newspaper "Jerusalem Post" wrote this morning.
The publication notes that the mechanism is built into the 2015 agreement, so it allows any party to it to automatically return full sanctions against Tehran if it deems it to be violating the deal, with Russia and China not having their standard veto power in UN.
So far, however, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has shown little inclination to make the necessary concessions to avoid the return of restrictions and even new air strikes by Israel and the United States, the newspaper wrote.
To date, the only real concessions Khamenei has made are to allow IAEA nuclear inspectors to return to the country, but they have only been allowed to civilian nuclear sites, such as the Bushehr facility.
However, Iran refuses to allow the IAEA access to any of the military nuclear sites that were targeted by Israeli and US strikes in June, including about 400 kilograms of enriched uranium that was not affected by the bombings, the publication notes.